Religion and reducing prejudice

Drawing on findings from the study of prejudice and prejudice reduction, we identify a number of mechanisms through which religious communities may influence the intergroup attitudes of their members. We hypothesize that religious participation could in principle either reduce or promote prejudice with respect to any given target group. A religious community’s influence on intergroup attitudes will depend upon the specific beliefs, attitudes, and practices found within the community, as well as on interactions between the religious community and the larger social environment in which it is embedded. Basing our proposals on findings from the literature on prejudice formation and prejudice reduction allows us to outline useful directions for future studies of religion and prejudice

Automating human skills : preliminary development of a human factors methodology to capture tacit cognitive skills

Despite technological advances in intelligent automation, it remains difficult for engineers to discern which manual tasks, or task components, would be most suitable for transfer to automated alternatives. This research aimed to develop an accurate methodology for the measurement of both observable and unobservable physical and cognitive activities used in manual tasks for the capture of tacit skill. Experienced operators were observed and interviewed in detail, following which, hierarchical task analysis and task decomposition methods were used to systematically explore and classify the qualitative data. Results showed that a task analysis / decomposition methodology identified different types of skill (e.g. procedural or declarative) and knowledge (explicit or tacit) indicating this methodology could be used for further human skill capture studies. The benefit of this research will be to provide a methodology to capture human skill so that complex manual tasks can be more efficiently transferred into automated processes

The Economic Impact of Mega Sport Event

Hallmark sporting events have evolved from a competitive opportunity of showing national pride to commercially driven entertainment entities which seem to prosper from the economic stimulation of the event. Due to the growing popularity of these mega-sport events, cities and countries around the world are continually evaluating the potential of using these events to draw attention to the host. This thesis seeks to contribute to the controversial discussion of whether or not to invest in hosting a mega-sport event. Every stage of sporting events can reveal positive or negative influences, starting from a competitive bidding process, to the construction of infrastructure, and to the post-event effects. This thesis will focus on three aspects: (i) the anticipated impact of hosting a mega sport event in the short run versus long run by analyzing notable macroeconomic variables: expenditure, investment, and government spending; (ii) econometric analysis of long run panel data of gross domestic product per capita growth; and (iii) will also attempt to answer the question of why hosting a mega sport event did or did not work via. Applying basic macroeconomic principles, the original hypothesis suggested that the impact of hosting a mega-sport event would result in an expected short-run burst domestic product per capita (GDPPC) followed by a slight leveling off of the GDPPC in the medium and long term. Applying linear regressions over a twenty-year period, it is possible to evaluate the impact of hosting an event. Such analysis of the data indicated that it may be worthwhile for a country to host the World Cup but hosting either of the Olympic Games would likely be a costly endeavor

New George Eliot Letters

My hunt through the archives of the world for unpublished George Henry Lewes letters for a forthcoming edition of his letters has so far thrown up over 450 unpublished letters in his hand. It would hardly be surprising if the search sometimes produced unpublished George Eliot letters and related documents. A February 1991 letter to Charles W. Mann, Chief Rare Books and Special Collections at the Pattee Library, the Pennsylvania State University Library, resulted in a rich harvest of materials. The Allison-Shelley Collection of over 10,000 books and many thousands of letters, manuscripts and drawings was bequeathed to the Pennsylvania State University in 1972. It was left by Dr. Philip Allison-Shelley who was Professor of German and Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University. The focus of interest is Anglo-German literary relations and translations, and materials are continually being added to the collections. James Lowe Autographs Catalogue No. 34 (1986), of New York City, contained several George Eliot and G.H. Lewes holographs which were purchased and added to the Allison-Shelley Collection in 1987. Two of the Eliot letters are addressed to Dr. Emil Lehmann (1829-98) of Dresden. The brother of Lewes\u27s close friend, Frederick Lehmann, he translated Felix Holt and Middlemarch, as well as G.H. Lewes\u27s Actors and the Art of Acting into German. Once is a lengthy letter to Lehmann\u27s relative Mrs. Benzon concerning his translation of Middlemarch. The other letter of interest is from John Waiter Cross to Lehmann concerning his interest in translating into German Cross\u27s Life of George Eliot

The Jewish elements of George Eliot's "Daniel Deronda" - A study of George Eliot's interest in and knowledge of Judaism

This thesis is an examination of George Eliot's interest in Judaism and the use to which she puts her knowledge of Jews and Judaism in her work, and especially in her last novel Daniel Deronda. The Introduction outlines the subject of this study and Chapter 1 traces George Eliot's early Jewish knowledge. Chapter 2 is concerned with the development and extension of that knowledge in London and Germany through George Eliot's acquaintance with the work of Heine and Spinoza. Chapter 3 examines her philosophical interests and periodical reviewing, consideration of which leads in Chapter 4 to an analysis of her use of Jewish material in her early work, The Lifted Veil, Romola, The Spanish Gypsy. Chapter 5 deals with Europe at her time, her knowledge of Anti-Semitism and her reading of work dealing with the Jews and Chapter 6 looks at George Eliot's knowledge and use of Jewish Historians and the work of Jehuda Halevi in Daniel Deronda. Chapter 7 consists of a discussion of the Jewish characters of Daniel Deronda. This is followed by a Conclusion in which "The Modern Hep! Hep! Hep!" is considered, George Eliot's intentions summarised and the particular qualities of Daniel Deronda's greatness enumerated. <p