On the standard view, an agnostic might commit non-doxastically to religion because she wants to receive some goods, which might be either natural or supernatural in kind. I broaden the picture by showing how the agnostic must also take negative factors into account. Negative mundane factors should be avoided as far as possible by the agnostic, and in extreme cases, even at the price of giving up

Thicker snowpacks and their insulation effects cause winter‐warming and invoke thaw of permafrost ecosystems. Temperature‐dependent decomposition of previously frozen carbon (C) is currently considered one of the strongest feedbacks between the Arctic and the climate system, but the direction and magnitude of the net C balance remains uncertain. This is because winter effects are rarely integrated

The present paper seeks to investigate the extent and nature of organizational interdependencies in recovery operations. It focuses on the recovery following the Boxing day tsunami in 2004 in Tamil Nadu, India. It uses the theoretical framework from infrastructure interdependencies to a disaster recovery setting. It takes a case study approach and is based on eighteen interviews conducted in Tamil

Policy (or political) entrepreneurship is an actor-based framework to examine and understand policy change. Rooted in Kingdon’s multiple streams approach, the policy entrepreneur is defined as “a special kind of actor, embedded in the sociopolitical fabric, who is alert to opportunities and acts upon them; he or she amasses coalitions for the purpose of effecting change in a substantive policy sec

Background Declines from high levels of under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) first occurred in Western Europe. Knowledge and technologies gained from early mortality reductions could accelerate the U5MR decline for countries that followed. We explored whether average annual reduction (AAR) in U5MR increased between countries over time in the 20th century.Methods We used U5MR time series from the Human Mo

Cultural ecosystem services (CES) are nonmaterial benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. The CES subcategories cover a wide range of domains (e.g. recreation, conservation of cultural heritage, human-nature relations). The CES concept has been proposed to acknowledge the nonmaterial values linking people and nature in social-ecological systems. Agricultural landscapes are outstanding example

Background: Currently, hand-held gamma cameras are being developed for 99mTc imaging, mainly for sentinel lymph node detection. These cameras offer advantages, such as mobility and ease of access, and may be useful also for other applications such as biokinetic studies in animals or for imaging of small, superficial structures in patients. In this work, the suitability of a CZT-based hand-held cam

Does working time affect workers’ health behavior and health? We study this question in the context of a French reform that reduced the standard workweek from 39 to 35 hours, at constant earnings. Our empirical analysis exploits arguably exogenous variation in the reduction of working time across employers due to the reform. We find that the shorter workweek reduced smoking by six percentage point

This study documents how the pore structure develops with time in cement-based materials with varying fly ash replacement. Heat production was measured during the first days, water vapour desorption isotherms were determined at different times up to 18 months, and moisture transport properties were measured after one year. Long-term fly ash reactions alter the pore structure considerably. The fly

In warm humid tropical climates, the outdoor environment defines the lives of the majority of the population in terms of social and economic aspects. Improvement of the outdoor thermal environment encourages social and economic prosperity of the urbanites. This paper explores urbanites’ thermal comfort in the informal urban fabric of warm humid Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Simultaneously, the study co

The widespread occurrence of lower Eocene chert and porcellanite has been viewed as a major paleoceanographic issue since the advent of ocean drilling, and both biotic and abiotic forcings have been proposed to explain it. We present a reconstruction of indurated siliceous sediment (ISS) and preserved biosiliceous sediment (PBS) occurrences in the Atlantic Ocean through the Paleocene and Eocene (~

The breakup of the L-chondrite parent body (LCPB) in the mid-Ordovician is the largest documented asteroid breakup event during the past 3 Gyr. It affected Earth by a dramatic increase in the flux of L-chondritic material and left prominent traces in both meteorite and sedimentary records. A precise constraint on the timing of the LCPB breakup is important when evaluating the terrestrial biotic an

Presentation of the pedagogical ideas and practice of Swedish filmmaker and composer Jan Bark (1934 - 2012).

Background: The optimal antibiotic treatment length for infective endocarditis (IE) is uncertain. International guidelines recommend treatment duration of up to 6 weeks for patients with left-sided IE but are primarily based on historical data and expert opinion. Efficacies of modern therapies, fast recovery seen in many patients with IE, and complications to long hospital stays challenge the rati

Group A Streptococcus is a common pathogen that elicits a protective humoral response against the cell wall component GlcNAc. In this issue of Immunity, New et al. demonstrate the ability of long-lived B-1 cells to be programmed by microbial colonization and early life immunization to uniquely incorporate GlcNAc reactivity in mice, establishing their critical role in mediating neonatal immune impr