A Brief History of the Slovak Lutheran Synod of the United States

A Brief History of the Slovak Lutheran Synod of the United States.slovak lutherans, america, streator, karol, freeland

Sixth Amendment; Right of Confrontation Limitations on the Bruton Rule; Parker v. Randolph

In some joint criminal trials the right of one defendant to refrain from self incrimination may come into conflict with the right of another defendant to confront the witnesses against him. The problem arises when one defendant refuses to testify at trial after having made a voluntary, out of court statement which tends to implicate a second defendant. The rules of evidence allow the statement to be introduced at trial only against the party making it; its use against the implicated defendant is excluded as hearsay.\u27 The rules also provide for the court to instruct the jury on the limited admissibility of the statement

Who’s afraid of clicktivism? Exploring citizens’ use of social media and political participation in the Czech Republic

This chapter aims to empirically investigate the connection between online political expression (Gil de Zuniga et al. 2014) and offline political and civic engagement in the context of the 2013 Czech Parliamentary elections. The theoretical context of the chapter is informed by the debates surrounding the role of social network sites and other Web 2.0 applications in facilitating new forms of civic engagement and political participation, and particularly by the concepts of “clicktivism” or “slacktivism” (e.g. Morozov 2009), claiming that online activism is often not being followed or complemented by offline or forms of participation, and that there is no link between digital engagement and citizens’ real–life actions. Driven by the main research question “How does social media use relate to election turnout and other forms of offline political participation?”, this study attempts to test this thesis, using data from a representative survey of the Czech adult population, distributed directly following the 2013 elections. The results suggest that the hypothesis about “clicktivism” is all but unfounded in the context of the Czech social network users, as those politically active online during the campaign are more likely to vote, and engage more often in other traditional participatory activities as well. The analysis further explores the relationship between participation and the use of social media, taking into account other factors such as political interest and political efficacy, with the ambition to provide a more detailed understanding of online political engagement and its determinants

Whither slacktivism? Political engagement and social media use in the 2013 Czech Parliamentary elections

This article examines the relationship between online political expression and offline forms of political participation in the context of the 2013 Czech Parliamentary elections. It draws on the rapidly growing but still very much inconclusive empirical evidence concerning the use of new media and social network sites in particular for electoral mobilization and social activism, and their impact on more traditional forms of civic and political engagement. The theoretical framework of the paper is inspired by the competing perspectives on the role of social media for democratic participation and civic engagement, the mobilization vs. normalization thesis, as well as by the popular concepts of clicktivism or slacktivism (Morozov, 2009), denouncing online activism for allegedly not being complemented by offline actions and having little or no impact on real-life political processes. With the intention to empirically contribute to these discussions, this study uses data from a cross-sectional survey on a representative sample of the Czech adult population (N=1,653) which was conducted directly following the 2013 Parliamentary elections. The study was driven by the main research question: Is there a link between online political expression during the election campaign and traditional forms of political participation among Czech Facebook users? Furthermore, the analysis examined the relationship between online political participation and a declared political interest, electoral participation and political news consumption. The results obtained from an ordinal logistic regression analysis confirm the existence of a significant positive relationship between the respondents’ level of campaign engagement on Facebook and their political interest, political information seeking as well as traditional (mainly offline) participation activities, including voting

A Call to Excellence: Leadership Training and Mentoring Manual for Women in Ministry in the Twenty-First Century

The growth of women in leadership within the local church is at an all-time high. These women face tremendous obstacles as they seek to lead the twenty-first century church. This thesis investigates the role of African American women in the Black Baptist church to identify skills necessary for successful leadership within the denomination. Going beyond analysis and exploration, it answers the question of how to develop a training and mentorship program specifically designed to prepare African-American women for excellence in leadership. A survey of fifty church staff and members of various Black Baptist churches was conducted to determine the perspective and experiences of women in leadership. Interviews with three women serving as pastors within the Black Baptist church facilitated in the gathering of key data. This information was used to format a training and mentoring manual that effectively prepare African American women for leadership in the Black Baptist church

Organic contaminants in lower Great Lakes\u27 waterfowl in relation to diet, with particular reference to Dreissena polymorpha.

Six species of waterfowl including greater scaup (Aythya marila), lesser scaup (Aythya affinis), bufflehead (Bucephala albeola), canvasback (Aythya valisineria), mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), and redhead (Aythya americana) were collected and analyzed for diet content, organic contaminant patterns (pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)), and stable isotope (\sp{14}C and \sp{15}N) signatures from 3 sites in the lower Great Lakes (Fighting Island, western Lake Erie, and Big Creek). Lesser and greater scaup from Fighting Island were classified into groups according to the percentage dry mass of zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) in the diet. Lesser and greater scaup classified as Dreissena-consumers had, on average, 85 and 67%, respectively, zebra mussel diet content as compared to 6 and 3% for individuals classified as macrophyte-consumers. Stable isotope analyses revealed that \u27Dreissena-consumer\u27 lesser and greater scaup were enriched 2.9\perthous and 2.4\perthous in \sp{15}N relative to \u27macrophyte-consumer\u27 conspecifics. As well, these \u27mussel-consumer\u27 waterfowl had 2.6\perthous and 2.3\perthous higher \sp{15}N levels relative to Dreissena, their principal prey. Using chemical octanol-water partition coefficients (K\rm\sb{ow}) a representative group of low-(pentachlorobenzene (QCB), polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) # 28), mid-(PCBs # 105, 153) and high-(PCBs # 194, 206) K\rm\sb{ow} compounds were examined in liver tissues for each group of waterfowl. Results revealed significant differences with respect to diet for high-K\rm\sb{ow} compounds, though differences among species were insignificant. In each case, mussel-consumers had elevated concentrations of these compounds relative to individuals that avoided Dreissena. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)Dept. of Biological Sciences. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1995 .M39. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 34-06, page: 2297. Adviser: Hugh J. MacIsaac. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1995

Good girls don't comment on politics? Gendered character of online political participation in the Czech Republic

The article aims to contribute to the still relatively unexplored area of the relationship between gender and online political participation. Using two complementary methods – a representative, post-election survey of the adult Czech population and a content analysis of communication on the selected Czech political parties’ Facebook profiles during the campaign for the 2013 Parliamentary Elections – we attempt to challenge some established assumptions regarding the allegedly equalizing effect of the Internet and social media on participatory behaviour of men and women. While survey data discovered subtle yet statistically significant differences between men and women in some online expressive activities on Facebook, mainly commenting on other users’ statuses, content analysis further revealed that there are not only notable gender gaps among the Facebook users who commented on the campaign, but also differences in the tone of communication produced by the respective gender groups, with men posting more negative comments addressed to parties as well as to other Facebook users. We suggest that these results question the prevailing perception about the narrowing of the ‘gender gap’ in the online environment and call for a more nuanced methodological approach to different forms of online political expression

Bericht zur wissenschaftlichen und technologischen Leistungsfähigkeit Österreichs 2022

Mit dem jährlich erscheinenden Bericht zur wissenschaftlichen und technologischen Leistungsfähigkeit Österreichs bietet der RFTE seit 2012 Akteur:innen und politischen Entscheidungsträger:innen des FTI­ Systems eine entsprechend fundierte Grundlage für evidenzbasierte, systemisch wirksame Handlungen. In diesem Jahr trägt der RFTE den sich stetig verändernden Erfordernissen mit der vorliegenden Ausgabe eines neu gedachten Berichts und dem neuen webbasierten FTI­ Monitor unter fti-monitor.rfte.at Rechnung