Making Crosses introduces a new spiritual practice for those who want to experience God beyond day-to-day prayers. More than analytical thinking, the practice of making crosses offers a way of prayer where understanding comes from doing. This new prayer form can take as little or as much time as you have or want to commit. You bring your own creativity to bear and make a representation of the cross of Christ. Each cross is unique, but they all share some deep truths, and Ellen Prewitt invites all to explore the ways in which making crosses can deepen a life lived for Christ. As she explains: “I’ve found that anyone can make a cross, and by making crosses we are better able to understand what God needs for us to understand about ourselves, our church, or whatever may be working in our lives. To make a cross is to pray in a new way, but it’s not as simple as old-fashioned petitionary prayer; making crosses is a way for God to pray through you.”

A resource that gives practical ideas for reflection and study based on the central Christian symbol - the cross - an endlessly rich theme against which to explore individual stories and experiences. It comes with a downloadable CD-ROM which includes templates and instruction for making hand held crosses and colour images of crosses worldwide.

From Lake Chad to Iraq, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) provide relief around the globe, and their scope is growing every year. Policy makers and activists often assume that humanitarian aid is best provided by these organizations, which are generally seen as impartial and neutral. In Above the Fray, Shai M. Dromi investigates why the international community overwhelmingly trusts humanitarian NGOs by looking at the historical development of their culture. With a particular focus on the Red Cross, Dromi reveals that NGOs arose because of the efforts of orthodox Calvinists, demonstrating for the first time the origins of the unusual moral culture that has supported NGOs for the past 150 years. Drawing on archival research, Dromi traces the genesis of the Red Cross to a Calvinist movement working in mid-nineteenth-century Geneva. He shows how global humanitarian policies emerged from the Red Cross founding members’ faith that an international volunteer program not beholden to the state was the only ethical way to provide relief to victims of armed conflict. By illustrating how Calvinism shaped the humanitarian field, Dromi argues for the key role belief systems play in establishing social fields and institutions. Ultimately, Dromi shows the immeasurable social good that NGOs have achieved, but also points to their limitations and suggests that alternative models of humanitarian relief need to be considered.

This book presents selected papers from two important conferences held on October 12–14, 2016 in Warsaw, Poland: the Fourteenth National Conference of Operational and Systems Research, BOS-2016, one of the premiere conferences in the field of operational and systems research not only in Poland but also at the European level; and the Fifteenth International Workshop on Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets and General Nets, IWIFSGN-2016, one of the foremost conferences on fuzzy logic, notably addressing extensions of the traditional fuzzy sets, as well as the Generalized Nets (GNs), a powerful extension of the traditional Petri net paradigm. The scope of the BOS con ferences includes all types of problems related to systems modeling, systems analysis, broadly perceived operational research, optimization, decision making, and decision support, to name but a few. In all these areas, virtually all models used have to take into account not only uncertainty in its traditional sense, but also imprecision of information. That is, in addition to traditional probabilistic and statistical tools and techniques, the use of methods based on fuzzy sets can also be sensible. Even more so, employing certain extensions of the classic concept of a fuzzy set can be very useful. Applying intuitionistic fuzzy sets, which are at the core of the IWIFSGN conferences, is a good example. Both conferences, BOS-2016 and IWIFSGN-2016, offered ideal venues for the exchange of ideas, cross-fertilization, and mutual inspiration.

Cross-Cultural Decision Making Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2022), July 24–28, 2022, New York, USA

This book reports on the latest advances in understanding human cognition and its interplay with various cultural constructs, such as geographical, historical, sociological, and organizational cultures. It addresses researchers, scholars, and industry practitioners from diverse backgrounds, including sociology, linguistics, business, military science, psychology, human factors, neuroscience, and education. The book covers a wealth of topics, such as the analyses of historical events and intercultural competence, commercial applications of social-cultural science, the study of decision-making similarities (and differences) across cultures, Human, Social, Cultural Behavioral (HSCB) modeling and simulation technology, as well as social networks and studies on group communication. It also reports on real-world case studies relevant to cross-cultural decision making. The book aims at combining neurocognitive studies with studies from other relevant disciplines to develop a more holistic understanding of the decisions that people, groups, and societies make to improve the ability to forecast and plan for the future. The book is based on the AHFE 2016 International Conference on Cross-Cultural Decision Making (CCDM), held on July 27-31, 2016, in Walt Disney World®, Florida, USA.