Three online schemes are presented here. Each relies on the same techniques for encoding denominations in signatures and for "devaluing" signatures to the exact amount chosen at the time of payment. They differ in how the unspent value is returned to the payer. In the first, all change is accumulated by the payer in a single "cookie jar," which might be deposited at the bank during the next wit...

A set of 46 grapevine denominations was genotyped at 11 microsatellite loci in order to discriminate them. Ninety four alleles with a mean number of 8.55 alleles per locus were observed in a total of 37 detected unique genotypes. Previously assumed synonyms were confirmed and several cases of homonymy resolved. Comparison of the data obtained in this study with data of 32 genotypes previously r...

Abstrac t . We propose a micro-cash technique based on a one-time signature scheme: signing a message more than once leads to disclosure of the signer's private key. In addition to usual cash properties such as off-fine bank for payment and spender's anonymity, the technique also provides a number of useful features. These include: identifying double spender with strong proof, cash revocable fo...

Interconnections between the faith-based and medical sectors are multifaceted and have existed for centuries, including partnerships that have evolved over the past several decades in the U.S. This paper outlines ten points of intersection that have engaged medical and healthcare professionals and institutions across specialties, focusing especially on primary care, global health, and community...

Poor work-related psychological health and professional burnout remain issues of concern among clergy across denominations and across cultures. Maslach’s three-component model of burnout remains the most frequently employed conceptualization and measure in clergy research. Maslach proposes a sequential model of burnout. An alternative approach has been offered by the Francis Burnout Inventory t...

The author of this book?her first to be translated?is a Dutch psychiatrist. She has set out to relate her clinical experience to a framework of the psychology of Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas, and to redress the balance of Freud's studies on sick people by an appeal to closer observation of those who are well. A detailed study of this, in her other works (to be translated) will be awaited wi...

There are systemic features of contemporary Christianity that create an almost invisible class of non-believing clergy, ensnared in their ministries by a web of obligations, constraints, comforts, and community. Exemplars from five Protestant denominations, Southern Baptist, United Church of Christ, Presbyterian, Methodist and Church of Christ, were found and confidentially interviewed at lengt...

Under what conditions does religion become a salient social identity? By measuring religious attachment among the people living astride the Burkina Faso–Côte d’Ivoire border in West Africa, an arbitrary boundary that exposes otherwise similar individuals to different political contexts, this article makes a case for the importance of the political environment in affecting the weight that people...

Previous research suggests that gays and lesbians not only look to the law as an important site of social recognition but also pursue strategies to legitimate their relationships outside of the law, such as having commitment ceremonies in religious institutions. While previous research suggests that homosexuality is a divisive issue within religious communities, we know little about how heteros...