We are currently experiencing the largest and fastest religious shift in US history. It is greater than the First and Second Great Awakening and every revival in our country combined but in the opposite direction. Yet precious little rigorous study has been done on the broad phenomenon of dechurching in America. Jim Davis and Michael Graham have commissioned the largest and most comprehensive study of dechurching in America by renowned sociologists Dr. Ryan Burge and Dr. Paul Djupe. The Great Dechurching takes the insights gleaned from this study to drill down on how exactly people are dechurching with respect to beliefs, behavior, and belonging. The Great Dechurching gives the church in America its first ever deep dive into the dechurched phenomenon. Readers will learn about the dechurched through a detailed sketch of demographics, size, core concerns, church off-ramps, historical roots, and the gravity of what is at stake. Then they will explore what can be done to slow the bleed, engage the pertinent issues winsomely and wisely, and hopefully re-church some of the dechurched.

This is the third book in the series Legal Issues of Services of General Interest. The book focuses upon a set of research questions on the recent developments in the emergence of services of general interest (SGIs) as a distinct EU concept. This includes, inter alia, the emergence of universal service obligations and the way they are regulated in the EU in primary and secondary law, the range of soft law communications adopted by the Commission to create a distinctive EU concept of SGIs, the residual role of hard law in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the special problems created by Social Services of General Economic Interest and the interaction of procurement and state aid law with SGIs. A new perspective is offered in this book: some of the issues faced by the EU in accommodating SGIs into a regulatory framework are found also in the policy of the WTO and in least developed countries (LDCs).

The true story of an elite group of men who wrote a page in Naval history. They patrolled the waterways in thirty-one foot river patrol boats powered by Detroit diesel engines with water jet-propulsion. Armed with machineguns and grenade launchers, as well as sheer guts and determination, these sailors faced danger around every bend in the river. Working together, they became one of the finest weapons in Admiral Zumwalt's arsenal for turning back the tide of communist infiltration into Saigon, taking control of the inland waterways. These are true accounts of their bravery, which they proved time and again by spearheading operations into enemy controlled territory. United together in brotherhood, they accomplished all their missions and won their part of the Vietnam War. .

The Cambridge Companion to the Circus provides a complete guide for students, scholars, teachers, researchers, and practitioners who are seeking perspectives on the foundations and evolution of the modern circus, the contemporary extent of circus studies, and the specialised literature available to support further enquiries. The volume brings together an international group of established and emerging scholars working across the multi-disciplinary domain of circus studies to present a clear overview of the specialised histories, aesthetics and distinctive performances of the modern circus. In sixteen commissioned essays, it covers the origins in commercial equestrian performance during the late-eighteenth century to contemporary inflections of circus arts in major international festivals, educational environments, and social justice settings.

America's favorite cat is back with this new value-priced edition of three-in-one comic strips (contains: Garfield Feeds His Face [#64], Garfield Eats and Runs [#65], and Garfield Nutty as a Fruitcake [#66]) together for the first time in color and super-sized!

When one Garfield isn't enough--there's only one thing better than a Garfield collection: three Garfield collections!

GARFIELD FEEDS HIS FACE: "Eat early and often"--that's the credo of the furry fatso. Garfield fans who are gluttons for fun will want to indulge themselves in this meaty new collection of rib-tickling comics.

GARFIELD EATS AND RUNS: For Garfield, eating is a full-contact sport. Boasting an Olympic-sized appetite, the famished feline dives into each meal with the heart--and mouth--of a champion.

GARFIELD NUTTY AS A FRUITCAKE: What kind of house does Garfield live in? A nuthouse, of course! The Arbuckle home is located just around the bend, where Jon and his wacky pets display their mad skills for having fun!

Hot on the heels of the first volume, Garfield returns in the second volume of a redesigned, updated, and value-priced collection! The second Full Course collection, featuring the next eight issues of Garfield's comic book escapades, sends the gang into some wacky adventures! Odie makes a new friend, Pet Force takes on a scary team of Super-Villains, and Garfield faces his most fearsome foe, the Lasagna Monster! The good times continue to roll in this round, as we see how the gang beats the heat, learn if Jon can finally stop being late, and if Nermal can set a world record! Meanwhile, Pet Force stops by for even more adventures! Along with creator Jim Davis, Mark Evanier, Scott Nickel, Gary Barker, Mike DeCarlo, Andy Hirsch, Mark & Stephanie Heike, David DeGrand, Fred Hembeck, Courtney Bernard, Genevieve Ft, Lisa Moore, and Steve Wands bring home even more cattitude with the Fat Cat. Collects Garfield #9-16.

Computing systems are becoming highly complex, harder to understand, and therefore more prone to failure. Where such systems control aircraft for example, system failure could have disastrous consequences. It is important therefore that we are able to employ mathematical techniques to specify the behavior of critical systems. This thesis uses the theory of Communicating Sequential Processes to show how a real-time system (a system that maintains a continuous interaction with its environment) may be specified. Included is a case study in which a local area network protocol is described at two levels of abstraction, and a general method for structuring CSP descriptions of layered protocols is given. The research contained here represents the very latest work on the specification and verification of real-time systems.

To be effective, data-intensive systems require extensive ongoing customisation to reflect changing user requirements, organisational policies, and the structure and interpretation of the data they hold. Manual customisation is expensive, time-consuming, and error-prone. In large complex systems, the value of the data can be such that exhaustive testing is necessary before any new feature can be added to the existing design. In most cases, the precise details of requirements, policies and data will change during the lifetime of the system, forcing a choice between expensive modification and continued operation with an inefficient design. Engineering Agile Big-Data Systems outlines an approach to dealing with these problems in software and data engineering, describing a methodology for aligning these processes throughout product lifecycles. It discusses tools which can be used to achieve these goals, and, in a number of case studies, shows how the tools and methodology have been used to improve a variety of academic and business systems.

This comprehensive resource is an invaluable teaching aid for adding a global dimension to students' understanding of American history. It includes a wide range of materials from scholarly articles and reports to original syllabi and ready-to-use lesson plans to guide teachers in enlarging the frame of introductory American history courses to an international view.The contributors include well-known American history scholars as well as gifted classroom teachers, and the book's emphasis on immigration, race, and gender points to ways for teachers to integrate international and multicultural education, America in the World, and the World in America in their courses. The book also includes a 'Views from Abroad' section that examines problems and strategies for teaching American history to foreign audiences or recent immigrants. A comprehensive, annotated guide directs teachers to additional print and online resources.

During the eighteenth century, theatrical writing developed as a genre. The publishing market responded to a seemingly insatiable appetite for accounts of the personalities, social lives and performances of celebrated entertainers. This series features actors who were significant in their development of new ways of performing Shakespeare.

During the eighteenth century, theatrical writing developed as a genre. The publishing market responded to a seemingly insatiable appetite for accounts of the personalities, social lives and performances of celebrated entertainers. This series features actors who were significant in their development of new ways of performing Shakespeare.

During the eighteenth century, theatrical writing developed as a genre. The publishing market responded to a seemingly insatiable appetite for accounts of the personalities, social lives and performances of celebrated entertainers. This series features actors who were significant in their development of new ways of performing Shakespeare.

The Cambridge Companion to the Circus provides a complete guide for students, scholars, teachers, researchers, and practitioners who are seeking perspectives on the foundations and evolution of the modern circus, the contemporary extent of circus studies, and the specialised literature available to support further enquiries. The volume brings together an international group of established and emerging scholars working across the multi-disciplinary domain of circus studies to present a clear overview of the specialised histories, aesthetics and distinctive performances of the modern circus. In sixteen commissioned essays, it covers the origins in commercial equestrian performance during the late-eighteenth century to contemporary inflections of circus arts in major international festivals, educational environments, and social justice settings.

The popularity of the comic performers of late-Georgian and Regency England and their frequent depiction in portraits, caricatures and prints is beyond dispute, yet until now little has been written on the subject. In this unique study Jim Davis considers the representation of English low comic actors, such as Joseph Munden, John Liston, Charles Mathews and John Emery, in the visual arts of the period, the ways in which such representations became part of the visual culture of their time, and the impact of visual representation and art theory on prose descriptions of comic actors. Davis reveals how many of the actors discussed also exhibited or collected paintings and used painterly techniques to evoke the world around them. Drawing particularly on the influence of Hogarth and Wilkie, he goes on to examine portraiture as critique and what the actors themselves represented in terms of notions of national and regional identity.

The Fat Cat returns to comics in this original graphic novel featuring all-new stories, including work by legendary Garfield & Friends screenwriter Mark Evanier (Groo the Wanderer), with contributions from Scott Nickel (Garfield), Andy Hirsch (Baker Street Peculiars), and a special short story featuring first ever off-model artwork of your favorite characters as Garfield is reinterpreted for a new generation. When Jon reveals plans to bring Odie to a talent show audition, Garfield decides he can't let Odie get all the spotlight. But when his actions cause Odie to run away, it's up to Garfield to bring Odie back home.

This book was first published in 1993. Computing systems are becoming highly complex, harder to understand, and therefore more prone to failure. Where such systems control aircraft for example, system failure could have disastrous consequences. It is important therefore that we are able to employ mathematical techniques to specify the behaviour or safety critical systems. This thesis uses the theory of Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) to show how a real-lime system may be specified. Included is a case study in which a local area network protocol is described at two levels of abstraction, and a general method 14 structuring CSP descriptions of layered protocols is given.

This is the third book in the series Legal Issues of Services of General Interest. The book focuses upon a set of research questions on the recent developments in the emergence of services of general interest (SGIs) as a distinct EU concept. This includes, inter alia, the emergence of universal service obligations and the way they are regulated in the EU in primary and secondary law, the range of soft law communications adopted by the Commission to create a distinctive EU concept of SGIs, the residual role of hard law in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), the special problems created by Social Services of General Economic Interest and the interaction of procurement and state aid law with SGIs. A new perspective is offered in this book: some of the issues faced by the EU in accommodating SGIs into a regulatory framework are found also in the policy of the WTO and in least developed countries (LDCs).