Islamic and Religious Studies: Challenges and Opportunities for Twenty-first Century Indonesia

This paper explores challenges and opportunities for Religious and Islamic Studies in the opening years of the twenty first century. It is especially concerned with relationships between the Indonesian, North American and Global contexts in which the two disciplines are located and the ways in which scholarly discourse can be enriched by trans-national cooperation and discourse. It is argued that Religious Studies should be understood as an academic discourse about religion and must be clearly distinguished from religious discourse internal to and across confessional lines. In a more concrete way, the paper is concerned with the epistemological foundations of the academic study of religion and with the issue of pluralism. It is argued that in today's globalized world pluralism is a fact that cannot be ignored or eliminated. Discussion on what Eck has identified as three dimensions of pluralism, civic, theolo­gical and academic

The Apotheosis of Siti Khotijah: Islam and Muslims in a Balinese Galactic Polity

This article seeks to describe the way in which Gusti Ayu Made Rai, an eighteenth-century Balinese princess from Badung became Raden Ayu Siti Khotijah, one Indonesia's few widely recognized female Muslim saints. In so doing I develop an alternative reading of the dynamics of the history of religion in Bali, countering the common view that it is a static monolithically Hindu tradition. Rather than turning inward as the surrounding areas embraced Islam, Balinese kingdoms sought to include Muslims and elements of Islam in scared narratives and geographies. Two distinct theoretical approaches are used in this analysis: the structural approach to indigenous Southeast Asian states pioneered by Robert Heine-Geldern in the early decades of the twentieth century and the performative approach to ritual studies developed by Victor Turner in the 1970s

LandSAT Data Continuity Mission (LDCM) Safe Operations Ascent Design

No abstract availabl

Meta-Analysis: Impact of Drug Class on Adherence to Antihypertensives

Background—Observational studies suggest that there are differences in adherence to antihypertensive medications in different classes. Our objective was to quantify the association between antihypertensive drug class and adherence in clinical settings. Methods and Results—Studies were identified through a systematic search of English-language articles published from the inception of computerized databases until February 1, 2009. Studies were included if they measured adherence to antihypertensives using medication refill data and contained sufficient data to calculate a measure of relative risk of adherence and its variance. An inverse-variance–weighted random-effects model was used to pool results. Hazard ratios (HRs) and odds ratios were pooled separately, and HRs were selected as the primary outcome. Seventeen studies met inclusion criteria. The pooled mean adherence by drug class ranged from 28% for β-blockers to 65% for angiotensin II receptor blockers. There was better adherence to angiotensin II receptor blockers compared with angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (HR, 1.33; 95% confidence interval, 1.13 to 1.57), calcium channel blockers (HR, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.38 to 1.79), diuretics (HR, 1.95; 95% confidence interval, 1.73 to 2.20), and β-blockers (HR, 2.09; 95% confidence interval, 1.14 to 3.85). Conversely, there was lower adherence to diuretics compared with the other drug classes. The same pattern was present when studies that used odds ratios were pooled. After publication bias was accounted for, there were no longer significant differences in adherence between angiotensin II receptor blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or between diuretics and β-blockers. Conclusion—In clinical settings, there are important differences in adherence to antihypertensives in separate classes, with lowest adherence to diuretics and β-blockers and highest adherence to angiotensin II receptor blockers and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors. However, adherence was suboptimal regardless of drug class

Projected impact of polypill use among US adults: Medication use, cardiovascular risk reduction, and side effects

Background Polypills, which include multiple medications for reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in a single pill, have been proposed for population-wide use. The number of US adults eligible for polypills and potential benefits are unknown. Methods The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2004 and 2007-2008 were analyzed to estimate treatment rates for medications proposed for inclusion in polypills (aspirin, statin, an angiotensin-converting enzyme [ACE] inhibitor, and a thiazide-type diuretic for those without and a β-blocker for those with a history of myocardial infarction) among US adults. The number of coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke events potentially prevented through polypill use was projected by published meta-analyses and 3 large population-based cohort studies. Two polypill eligibility criteria were analyzed: (1) US adults ≥55 years and (2) US adults with a history of CVD. Results There are 67.6 million US adults ≥55 years and 15.4 million US adults with a history of CVD and, thus, eligible for polypills using the 2 outlined criteria. In 2007 to 2008, 37.3% of US adults ≥55 years and 57.0% of those with a history of CVD were taking statins. Use of other polypill medications was also low. Polypill use by US adults aged ≥55 years is projected to potentially prevent 3.2 million CHD events and 1.7 million strokes over 10 years. Among those with a history of CVD, the potential to prevent of 0.9 million CHD events and 0.5 million strokes is projected. Conclusions Polypills have the potential to lower CVD incidence substantially among US adults

Body size in ecological networks

Body size determines a host of species traits that can affect the structure and dynamics of food webs, and other ecological networks, across multiple scales of organization. Measuring body size provides a relatively simple means of encapsulating and condensing a large amount of the biological information embedded within an ecological network. Recently, important advances have been made by incorporating body size into theoretical models that explore food web stability, the patterning of energy fluxes, and responses to perturbations. Because metabolic constraints underpin body-size scaling relationships, metabolic theory offers a potentially useful new framework within which to develop novel models to describe the structure and functioning of ecological networks and to assess the probable consequences of biodiversity change. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer Reviewe

Event Rates, Hospital Utilization, and Costs Associated with Major Complications of Diabetes: A Multicountry Comparative Analysis

Philip Clarke and colleagues examined patient-level data for over 11,000 participants with type 2 diabetes from 20 countries and find that major complications of diabetes significantly increased hospital use and costs across settings