Religion and Attitudes toward Same-Sex Marriage among U.S. Latinos

Objectives. This study examines links between multiple aspects of religious involvement and attitudes toward same-sex marriage among U.S. Latinos. The primary focus is on variations by affiliation and participation, but the possible mediating roles of biblical beliefs, clergy cues, and the role of religion in shaping political views are also considered. Methods. We use binary logistic regression models to analyze data from a large nationwide sample of U.S. Latinos conducted by the Pew Hispanic Forum in late 2006. Results. Findings highlight the strong opposition to same-sex marriage among Latino evangelical (or conservative) Protestants and members of sectarian groups (e.g., LDS), even compared with devout Catholics. Although each of the hypothesized mediators is significantly linked with attitudes toward same-sex marriage, for the most part controlling for them does not alter the massive affiliation/attendance differences in attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Conclusions. This study illustrates the importance of religious cleavages in public opinion on social issues within the diverse U.S. Latino population. The significance of religious variations in Hispanic civic life is likely to increase with the growth of the Latino population and the rising numbers of Protestants and sectarians among Latinos

Faith, Race-Ethnicity, and Public Policy Preferences: Religious Schemas and Abortion Attitudes among U.S. Latinos

Research has demonstrated that white conservative Protestants are more opposed to abortion than their Catholic counterparts. At the same time, conservative Protestantism has made significant inroads among U.S. Latinos. This study augments existing research on religion and racial-ethnic variations in abortion attitudes by comparing levels of support for legalized abortion among Catholic and conservative Protestant Latinos. Data are drawn from a nationally representative sample of U.S. Latinos. Significantly greater opposition to abortion is found among religiously devout conservative Protestant Latinos when compared with their Catholic counterparts. Latino Catholicism, which functions as a near-monopolistic, highly institutionalized faith tradition among Hispanics, produces weaker antiabortion attitudes than those exhibited in Latino conservative Protestantism. Among Latinos, conservative Protestantism operates as a niche voluntaristic faith. These factors produce a religious schema that yields robust antiabortion attitudes. This study has important implications for understanding the intersection of race-ethnicity, religion, and public policy preferences

Pediatric Hand Surgery Training in Nicaragua: A Sustainable Model of Surgical Education in a Resource-Poor Environment.

Recent reports have demonstrated that nearly two-thirds of the world's population do not have access to adequate surgical care, a burden that is borne disproportionately by residents of resource-poor countries. Although the reasons for limited access to surgical care are complex and multi-factorial, among the most substantial barriers is the lack of trained surgical providers. This is particularly true in surgical subspecialties that focus on life-improving, rather than life-saving, treatments, such as pediatric hand and upper extremity surgery, which manages such conditions as congenital malformations, trauma and post-traumatic deformities including burns, and neuromuscular conditions (brachial plexus birth palsy, spinal cord injury, and cerebral palsy). Many models of providing surgical care in resource-limited environments have been described and implemented, but few result in sustainable models of health-care delivery. We present our experience developing a pediatric hand and upper extremity surgery training program in Nicaragua, a resource-limited nation, that grew out of a collaboration of American and Nicaraguan orthopedic surgeons. We compare this experience to that of surgeons undergoing subspecialty training in pediatric upper limb surgery in the US, highlighting the similarities and differences of these training programs. Finally, we assess the results of this training program and identify areas for further growth and development

NGC 6309, a Planetary Nebula that Shifted from Round to Multipolar

We present new narrow-band Ha, [N II], and [O III] high-resolution images of the quadrupolar planetary nebula (PN) NGC 6309 that show in great detail its bipolar lobes and reveal new morphological features. New high- and low-dispersion long-slit spectra have been obtained to help in the investigation of the new nebular components. The images and spectra unveil two diffuse blobs, one of them located at 55 arcsec from the central star along the NE direction (PA= +71) and the other at 78 arcsec in the SW direction (PA= -151). Therefore, these structures do not share the symmetry axes of the inner bipolar outflows. Their radial velocities relative to the system are quite low: +3 and -4 km/s, respectively. Spectroscopic data confirm a high [O III] to Ha ratio, indicating that the blobs are being excited by the UV flux from the central star. Our images convincingly show a spherical halo 60 arcsec in diameter encircling the quadrupolar nebula. The expansion velocity of this shell is low, 66 km/s. The software SHAPE has been used to construct a morpho-kinematic model for the ring and the bipolar flows that implies an age of 4,000 yrs, the expansion of the halo sets a lower limit for its age 46,000 yrs, and the very low expansion of the blobs suggests they are part of a large structure corresponding to a mass ejection that took place 150,000 yrs ago. In NGC 6309 we have direct evidence of a change in the geometry of mass-loss, from spherical in the halo to axially-symmetric in the two pairs of bipolar lobes.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

Making the Case for Diversity in Philanthropy

While many foundations have long sought to become more inclusive as a logical extension of their missions, the business case for incorporating diversity has renewed interest in understanding how diversity can also enhance the effectiveness of philanthropic organizations. Because prior movements to increase diversity in philanthropy have focused on moral, rather than operational, arguments and because the field lacks an easy way to measure outcomes, strong evaluation measures of diversity's impacts on philanthropic activity have not been developed. Numerous studies from the corporate sphere, however, suggest that greater inclusiveness may improve an organization's processes and outcomes. Many philanthropic experts and practitioners believe that these gains may apply to grantmaking institutions as well as businesses.

Three in one-multiple faunal elements within an endangered european butterfly species

Ice ages within Europe forced many species to retreat to refugia, of which three major biogeographic basic types can be distinguished: "Mediterranean", "Continental" and "Alpine / Arctic" species. However, this classification often fails to explain the complex phylogeography of European species with a wide range of latitudinal and altitudinal distribution. Hence, we tested for the possibility that all three mentioned faunal elements are represented within one species. Our data was obtained by scoring 1,307 Euphydryas aurinia individuals (46 European locations) for 17 allozyme loci, and sequencing a subset of 492 individuals (21 sites) for a 626 base pairs COI fragment. Genetic diversity indices, F statistics, hierarchical analyses of molecular variance, individual-based clustering, and networks were used to explore the phylogeographic patterns. The COI fragment represented 18 haplotypes showing a strong geographic structure. All but one allozyme loci analysed were polymorphic with a mean F-ST of 0.20, supporting a pronounced among population structure. Interpretation of both genetic marker systems, using several analytical tools, calls for the recognition of twelve genetic groups. These analyses consistently distinguished different groups in Iberia (2), Italy, Provence, Alps (3), Slovenia, Carpathian Basin, the lowlands of West and Central Europe as well as Estonia, often with considerable additional substructures. The genetic data strongly support the hypothesis that E. aurinia survived the last glaciation in Mediterranean, extra-Mediterranean and perialpine refugia. It is thus a rare example of a model organism that combines attributes of faunal elements from all three of these sources. The observed differences between allozymes and mtDNA most likely result from recent introgression of mtDNA into nuclear allozyme groups. Our results indicate discrepancies with the morphologically-based subspecies models, underlining the need to revise the current taxonomy.Estonian targeted financing project [Sf0180122s08]; DFG graduate school [1319]; [Pest-C/MAR/LA0015/2011]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The soft X-ray and narrow-line emission of Mrk573 on kiloparcec scales

We present a study of the circumnuclear region of the nearby Seyfert galaxy Mrk573 using Chandra, XMM-Newton and HST data. The X-ray morphology shows a biconical region extending up to 12 arcsecs (4 kpc) in projection from the nucleus. A strong correlation between the X-rays and the highly ionized gas seen in the [O III] image is reported. Moreover, we have studied the line intensities detected with the RGS/XMM-Newton and used them to fit the low resolution EPIC/XMM-Newton and ACIS/Chandra spectra. The RGS spectrum is dominated by emission lines of C VI, O VII, O VIII, Fe XVII, and Ne IX, among others. A good fit is obtained using these emission lines found in the RGS spectrum as a template for Chandra spectra of the nucleus and extended emission. The photoionization model Cloudy provides a reasonable fit for both the nuclear region and the cone-like structures. For the nucleus the emission is modelled using two phases: a high ionization [log(U)=1.23] and a low ionization [log(U)=0.13]. For the high ionization phase the transmitted and reflected component are in a ratio 1:2, whereas for the low ionization the reflected component dominates. For the extended emission, we successfully reproduced the emission with two phases. The first phase shows a higher ionization parameter for the NW (log(U)=0.9) than for the SE cone (log(U)=0.3). The second phase shows a low ionization parameter (log(U)=-3) and is rather uniform for NW and SE cones. In addition, the nuclear optical/infrared SED has been modeled by a clumpy torus model. The torus bolometric luminosity agrees with the AGN luminosity inferred from the observed hard X-ray spectrum. The optical depth along the line of sight derived from the SED fit indicates a high neutral column density in agreement with the classification of the nucleus as a Compton-thick AGN.Comment: 15 pages, 14 figures, final version of the paper submitted to Ap

Time-space reproductive differences of black hakes, M. polli and M. senegalensis off the NW African Coast

PosterThe named black hake in the Northwest Africa, M. polli and M. senegalensis, are distributed in Saharan, Mauritanian and Senegalese waters, where they are target species of Spanish trawling fleet and by some longliners. The separation of both species is quite difficult in practice, hence they are usually considered as black hake (mixed) in commercial catch statistics. This fact and the considerable deep distribution range of M. polli, results in a marked scarcity of comparative detailed studies about these species. The aim of this work was to analyze detailed biological data, collected during research trawl surveys and scientific observations onboard of commercial trawlers and longilenrs in Mauritanian and Senegalese waters during 2003-2006. By macroscopic analysis of the gonadic stages and the seasonal evolution of gonadosomatic indices (GSI), it has been determined the spawning season of both species. In order to determine the size at first sexual maturity, a logistic model was fitted to the mature fraction by length separated by species, considering different time periods. In other hand, the monthly time series of commercial gonad yields between 1986 and 2006 were split up in the trend and the seasonal components using a X-12 ARIMA routine. The spawning took place during the cold season, from November to February with the strongest signal during December-January for both species, but it occurs quite early in M. senegalensis. Males consistently maturing earlier than females, but there was a little length difference of sexual maturity for the two species. M. senegalensis reached the first maturity (35,4 cm) at slightly lower length than M. polli (37,0 cm) for combined sexes model. The sex ratio was skewed to females in both species. Because these species inhabits into a highly dynamic oceanographic area, and taking in account that recently it has been suggested a strong dependence between the climate-environment proxy NAO and the black hakes adult abundance dynamics, we explored possible deterministic relationships between reproduction features and sexual maturity of both species in phase with NAO index. It was not possible to determine if the difference in length-maturity values with some previous analyses were related with changes in abundance, the environmental forcing, or due to calculus procedures. However there was synchrony between the pronounced negative NAO phase and decreasing amplitude of seasonal peak of gonad yields for both species. Finally, despite of there was a slightly asynchrony in spawning timing among both species, we believe that in general terms it is justified to consider one set of maturity parameter values to perform the assessment procedures.Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO