The Big Carrot: High Stake Incentives Revisited This paper provides an empirical demonstration of high stakes incentives in relation to religious practice. It shows that, when both positive (carrot) and negative (stick) incentives are available, the former are more effective than the latter. Specifically, it is shown that beliefs in heaven are much more relevant than beliefs in hell when estima...

OBJECTIVE Isolation of potentially pathogenic bacteria from carpets in hospitals has been reported earlier, but not from carpets in mosques. The aim of the present study is to determine the pathogenic and potentially pathogenic bacteria that may exist on the carpets of mosques in Tripoli, Libya. METHODS Dust samples from carpets were collected from 57 mosques in Tripoli. Samples were examined...

Mantispids (Mantispa styriaca) are predatory insects; on bright sunny days, they wait in ambush for insect prey. The prey is captured as soon as it is within reach by means of lightning-speed strikes with the powerful forelegs. The strikes can take less than 60 ms. The mantispid accomplishes this almost as effectively as the larger praying mantis, which occupies a similar habitat, even though t...

OBJECTIVE This study examined spiritual coping (beliefs and practices) of depressed African American cancer patients through a comparison with depressed White cancer patients and non-depressed African American cancer patients. METHODS Using mixed methods, 74 breast (n=41) and prostate (n=33) cancer survivors including 34 depressed and 23 nondepressed African Americans and 17 depressed Whites ...