Free Exercise Research Articles

Types Of Absenteeism: The Ways Of Increasing The Citizens' Political Activity

This article is devoted to the research on the phenomenon of absenteeism and its influence on the electoral process. The aim of the article is to present the types of absenteeism, the causes of occurrence of absenteeism, and the ways of overcoming absenteeism. It is necessary to mention the becoming of absenteeism into the subject of study by sociologists, politicians, and later lawyers. According to Article 4 of the Constitutional law of RA "Electoral Code": "Elections shall be held on the basis of the principles of free and voluntary exercise of the right of suffrage. No one shall have the right to force an elector to vote for or against a candidate (a political party) or have the right to force an elector to participate or not to participate in elections." The phenomenon of absenteeism has arisen from the above-mentioned principle and has become a means of boycotting elections. It is necessary to choose a certain way to overcome absenteeism which would not doubt the implementation of the principle of free and voluntary exercise of the right of suffrage, as well as other principles typical to a democratic state. The results of the article are based on the experience of foreign countries, the degree of voters’ participation during the elections held in a number of countries (presidential, parliamentary), and especially the degree of voters’ participation in the elections in the Republic of Armenia, and how it has changed. The results of the research allow us to conclude that there are three main ways to overcome voter absenteeism: to define the obligation of citizens to vote during elections, to exclude both the minimum electoral threshold and the requirement to consider the election valid, and to develop the legal culture of the electorate, to strengthen the citizens' confidence in the elections and in the realization of the importance of their participation in the process of the state government.

Free Exercise Takes Center Stage: The Right to Court and the Right to Religion

Free Exercise Takes Center Stage: The Right to Court and the Right to Religion

Under the Law: Public schools, religion, and equality after Carson v. Makin

In Carson v. Makin, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, if a state offers tuition assistance for students to attend private schools, then requiring that those private schools be nonsectarian violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. Robert Kim discusses how this case aligns with other decisions related to the free exercise of religion as it applies to public schools and what it could mean for schools going forward. Carson v. Makin, he explains, is one of several cases that open the door for states to fund religious education. At the same time, recent cases show that these schools may be allowed to discriminate against students and teachers while continuing to receive state funds.

Balanced Free Essential Amino Acids and Resistance Exercise Training Synergistically Improve Dexamethasone-Induced Impairments in Muscle Strength, Endurance, and Insulin Sensitivity in Mice.

Our previous study shows that an essential amino acid (EAA)-enriched diet attenuates dexamethasone (DEX)-induced declines in muscle mass and strength, as well as insulin sensitivity, but does not affect endurance. In the present study, we hypothesized that the beneficial effects will be synergized by adding resistance exercise training (RET) to EAA, and diet-free EAA would improve endurance. To test hypotheses, mice were randomized into the following four groups: control, EAA, RET, and EAA+RET. All mice except the control were subjected to DEX treatment. We evaluated the cumulative rate of myofibrillar protein synthesis (MPS) using 2H2O labeling and mass spectrometry. Neuromuscular junction (NMJ) stability, mitochondrial contents, and molecular signaling were demonstrated in skeletal muscle. Insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism using 13C6-glucose tracing during oral glucose tolerance tests were analyzed. We found that EAA and RET synergistically improve muscle mass and/or strength, and endurance capacity, as well as insulin sensitivity, and glucose metabolism in DEX-treated muscle. These improvements are accomplished, in part, through improvements in myofibrillar protein synthesis, NMJ, fiber type preservation, and/or mitochondrial biogenesis. In conclusion, free EAA supplementation, particularly when combined with RET, can serve as an effective means that counteracts the adverse effects on muscle of DEX that are found frequently in clinical settings.

Acute Supplementation with Capsaicin Enhances Upper-Limb Performance in Male Jiu-Jitsu Athletes.

The present study investigated whether acute capsaicin (CAP) supplementation improves mean power output (MPO) and peak velocity (PV) during the performance of the free bench press exercise (FBP). Twelve (n = 12) male Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) athletes (age: 24.3 ± 1.5 years, height: 1.74 ± 0.1 m, body mass: 75.7 ± 10.1 kg) participated in this randomized, placebo (PLA)-controlled, double-blind, crossover trial. For each condition, 45 min after CAP (12 mg purified) or PLA (12 mg of Celulomax E) consumption, the participants performed four sets of five repetitions of FBP at a load of 60% of body mass with five-min rest intervals. The MPO (t = 5.6, df = 11, p = 0.001, EF = 0.3, IC 95% = −0.55 to 1.05) and PV (t = 5.4, df = 11, p = 0.001, EF = 0.5, IC 95% = −0.32 to 1.30) were significantly higher with CAP supplementation versus PLA. Acute CAP supplementation appears to improve MPO and PV during FBP in male BJJ athletes.

Free-Exercise Arguments for the Right to Abortion: Reimagining the Relationship Between Religion and Reproductive Rights

This Article traces the history of the claim that restrictions on abortion violate either the Free Exercise Clause or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). This claim asserts that laws that ban or restrict access to abortion burden pregnant people’s ability to make reproductive decisions guided by their sincerely held religious beliefs or burden healthcare providers’ ability to provide abortion care as dictated by their religious beliefs. This Article argues that recovering this lost history reveals a dual erasure: erasure of the fact that faith motivates or even requires people to provide or obtain abortions and erasure of the decades-long legal claim that protecting the right to abortion is actually more consistent with religious-liberty principles than restricting it. There is a rich tradition of the clergy, the women’s movement, and religious organizations fusing free-exercise arguments with arguments about economic justice, dignity, and pregnant people’s ability to make choices about their lives and families.

Contact Tracing in the COVID-19 Pandemic: How Digital Contact Tracing Affects Our Individual Rights

Abstract Amid public health crises, contact tracing becomes an imperative mechanism in combatting the threat at hand. In today’s day and age, technology has exploded, leaving the legal world to determine technologies’ effect on the law. As the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc upon the world, how is contact tracing affected by the advent of modern technology, and how does the use of technology such as geolocation, artificial intelligence (AI), and facial recognition technology (FRT) comport with the rights to privacy, association, free exercise of religion, and equal protection? This paper will examine the current constitutional precedents to provide insight as to how the use of digital contact tracing would influence the rights of everyday citizens. Constitutional implications of digital contact tracing using geolocation, AI, and FRT are considered against the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments (more specifically, against freedom of religion, freedom of association, the right to privacy, and the right to equal protection). Given the novel aspects of geolocation, AI, and FRT, digital contact tracing could result in potential constitutional violations under certain circumstances. This research shows that while digital contact tracing using novel technology could be done in a legal way, there are just as many concerns to be had about potential constitutional abuses that could affect each and everyone’s lives.

Acute Hormonal Responses to Free Weight and Machine Resistance Exercise

Acute Hormonal Responses to Free Weight and Machine Resistance Exercise

Capabilities for epistemic liberation: the case of hermeneutical insurrection of the Network of Community Researchers in Medellin, Colombia

ABSTRACT Community leaders in Colombia have historically suffered processes of microaggressions and intimidation that threaten the free exercise of their voice in the processes of production of knowledge and in the participation of the planning of their territories. In this article, we explore the case study of the Network of Community Researchers (NCR), also known in Spanish as Red de Investigadores Comunitarios, promoted by the University of Antioquia, Colombia. The NCR is a commitment to the co-production of knowledge about human security from below between community researchers and academics. This article analyses the contribution of the NCR to the human security of Medellin and a specific collection of capabilities for epistemic liberation of community researchers: the capability to be recognised as a producer of valid knowledge, to do through communicative openness, to learn from collective knowledge and to transform through collective action. The expansion of these four capabilities evidence processes of resistance and hermeneutic insurrection of some community leaders and activists who participate in the NCR. The analysis shows the contribution of the NCR to facilitate and generate a safe space in which community researchers communicate knowledge and practices and share experiences, risks, struggles, fears and collective dreams of transformation.

New frontiers of religious freedom? LGBTQ rights versus religious conscience

ABSTRACT One frontier of public deliberation on religious freedom involves the clash of religious conscience with government rules against discrimination. As American courts consider issues pitting religious believers against other groups, especially LGBTQ citizens, the public is deeply divided. A paradigmatic case has been the Masterpiece Cakeshop litigation, testing whether a Christian baker could refuse to produce a wedding cake for a same-sex couple given his religious objections. As that case continues and similar confrontations proliferate, the First Amendment’s ‘free exercise’ clause produces new dilemmas. Although public attitudes seldom influence judicial decisions directly, in the long run American courts may well ‘follow the election returns’. This contribution considers public assessments of the importance of religious liberty and then examines attitudes on the Masterpiece controversy, using data from the Democracy Fund’s Voter Survey and the 2016 and 2020 American National Election Studies (ANES). We find that religious factors play a major role in determining citizen opinion, as the public reacts very much along ‘culture wars’ lines. But personal attitudes toward LGBTQ citizens also have a major direct impact on views about ‘conscience exemptions’.

Legal relations in the field of human reproductive activity

The article presents a comprehensive analysis of legal relations in the field of human reproductive activity by studying international and national legal regulation and changes in legal standards caused by the coronavirus crisis. Genesis of the legal regulation of human rights to reproduction has been studied and axiological and value determinants of legal relations in the field of reproductive activity have been determined. Current international standards are positioned as legal standards that affect the ability to determine the number of children, the intervals between their births, the provision of reproductive and sexual health, as well as the relationship regarding the preservation of their own genetic material. It is motivated that international norms establish the autonomy of women for the right to perform abortion in particular and the right to individual determination of human reproductive function in general. In particular, it is substantiated that despite considerable scientific advances, especially in the molecular sphere, reproductive activity as a system requires multidimensional study, including its spatial and temporal definition. In addition, issues related to research in the field of stem cell biology, microfluidics, integration of unicellular transcriptomics, etc. are relevant today, which will help to determine the normal and healthy functioning of human reproductive function. In particular, it will allow studying external impacts and diseases, including endocrine disorders in the body and aging. The national legal norms concerning the right to abortion and other rights in this field are studied. The article is based on the materials of a survey based on author’s questionnaires conducted to determine the level of realization of their reproductive rights by Ukrainian citizens during the pandemic caused by COVID-19. It is proved that the legal policy of states on reproductive rights during pandemic threats has transformed the possibility of free exercise of reproductive law. Today there is a problem of access to reproductive procedures, in particular due to their postponement indefinitely as non-priority, due to the inaccessibility of health authorities, social distance and the ban on crossing the state border, requirement for testing.

Trends and Determinants in Uptake of Cervical Cancer Screening in Spain: An Analysis of National Surveys from 2017 and 2020.

Simple SummaryCervical cancer is the fourth leading cause of death and morbidity in women worldwide. Although screening is a successful technique for lowering these rates, there are still great differences in screening adherence in Spain. The aims of this study were to examine the evolution of cytology screening adherence from 2017 and 2020 and to identify the factors associated with uptake among women in Spain. We found that 73.18% of women had received a cytology test during the previous three years. From 2017 and 2020, there was an increase in cytology screening participation among women aged 45–65 years. Foreigners were less likely to have a cytology test. The characteristics associated with cervical cancer screening that we discovered have significant value for public health initiatives, as they will assist health professionals in identifying women who are less likely to undergo screening and encouraging these women to do so.Cervical cancer rates have declined in industrialized nations as a result of cytology screening programs. However, there are still sizeable differences in screening adherence in Spain. This study aimed to identify the prevalence of cervical cancer screening among women in Spain, to analyze trends in that prevalence from 2017 and 2020 and to identify socio-demographic, health, and lifestyle factors related with adherence to this screening test. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 13,619 women aged 25–65 who participated in the 2017 Spanish National Health Survey and the 2020 European Health Survey for Spain. We used logistic regression to examine the relationship between socio-demographic, health and lifestyle factors and cervical cancer adherence. The prevalence of adherence was 73.18%. Additionally, there was a significant decrease in cervical cancer screening uptake from 2017 and 2020 among women aged 25–44 years (2017: 77.80%, 2020: 75.20%, p = 0.02), but an increase in the age group of 45–65 years (2017: 68.93%, 2020: 72.39%, p < 0.01) and in foreigners (2017: 64.29%, 2020: 72.29%, p < 0.01). Screening for cervical cancer is related with age, educational level, social class, insurance status, visits to the family doctor, alcohol consumption and free time physical exercise.

The Effect of Amiloride (10mg) on the Blood Pressure Response to Ischemic Exercise: Preliminary Observations

BackgroundDuring exercise, blood pressure increases via augmented central command and stimulation of mechano‐ and metabosensitive muscle afferents (i.e., the exercise pressor reflex). Recent evidence has reported a strong role of acid sensing ion channels (ASIC’s) in mediating this reflex, as well as exercise induced muscle pain. Therefore, it is logical to suspect that inhibiting ASIC’s would mitigate the exaggerated blood pressure responses and exercise related muscle pain observed in individuals with peripheral artery disease (PAD).Purpose. We tested the hypothesis that a single 10mg dose of amiloride (a K+‐sparing diuretic known to inhibit ASIC’s) would attenuate the pressor response to blood flow restricted (BFR) plantar flexion exercise in young healthy adults.MethodsSix healthy subjects (5 male, 26 ± 2 y/o, 180.8 ± 12.1 cm, 79.7 ± 12.9 Kg) completed three separate visits. Each visit included two bouts of isometric plantar flexion, both performed until failure at 30% of the predetermined maximal voluntary isometric contraction. During one bout, blood flow to the limb was restricted via a pressurized cuff placed around the proximal portion of the lower leg (BFR); the other bout was performed under free flow conditions. In the first visit, subjects performed these two exercise bouts (in random order) under normal, non‐treated conditions. In the second and third visits, subjects performed these exercise bouts (same order as in visit 1) ~3 hrs after oral ingestion of 10mg of amiloride, or ingestion of a placebo (random order). Blood pressure and heart rate were continuously recorded throughout exercise, and time to fatigue and muscle pain (on a 12cm visual analog scale) was recorded at the end of each exercise bout. Only data from the placebo and amiloride conditions are presented here.ResultsThe addition of BFR reduced total exercise time by ~40.8% (t=2.99, p=0.03), but had no significant effect on peak muscle pain (p&gt;0.10). Due to the preliminary nature of these data, no significant main effects of treatment (amiloride vs. placebo) were observed for free flow or BFR exercise (all p&gt;0.05). However, we did observe a net decrease in the average heart rate response (+10.7 ± 3.0 bpm vs. +11.3 ± 3.7 bpm, ηp2=0.539, p&gt;0.47), the total blood pressure response (5477.5 ± 373.7 mmHg*sec vs. 5841.3 ± 518.9 mmHg*sec, ηp2=0.250, p&gt;0.30), the total time‐tension index (595.9 ± 406.5 Kg*sec vs. 691.6 ± 394.2 Kg*sec, ηp2=0.211, p&gt;0.30), and the blood pressure to time‐tension index relationship (9.09 ± 4.40 mmHg/Kg vs. 11.38 ± 6.30 mmHg/Kg, ηp2=0.08, p&gt;0.50) in the amiloride condition compared to the placebo condition during BFR exercise.ConclusionsWhile these preliminary findings do not indicate significant effects of treatment, these observations serve as strong pilot data to support the continued investigation of amiloride as a method of attenuating the pressor response to ischemic exercise.

Optimal exercise frontier of Bermudan options by simulation methods

In this paper, a novel algorithm for determining the free exercise boundary for high-dimensional Bermudan option problems is presented. First, a rough estimate of the boundary is constructed on a fine (daily) time grid. This rough estimate is used to generate a more accurate estimate on a coarse time grid (exercise opportunities). Antithetic branching is used to reduce the computational workload. The method is validated by comparing it with other methods of solving the standard Black–Scholes problem. Finally, the method is applied to two cases of Bermudan options with a second stochastic variable: a stochastic interest rate and a stochastic volatility.

Validation and quantification of left ventricular function during exercise and free breathing from real-time cardiac magnetic resonance images

Exercise cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) can unmask cardiac pathology not evident at rest. Real-time CMR in free breathing can be used, but respiratory motion may compromise quantification of left ventricular (LV) function. We aimed to develop and validate a post-processing algorithm that semi-automatically sorts real-time CMR images according to breathing to facilitate quantification of LV function in free breathing exercise. A semi-automatic algorithm utilizing manifold learning (Laplacian Eigenmaps) was developed for respiratory sorting. Feasibility was tested in eight healthy volunteers and eight patients who underwent ECG-gated and real-time CMR at rest. Additionally, volunteers performed exercise CMR at 60% of maximum heart rate. The algorithm was validated for exercise by comparing LV mass during exercise to rest. Respiratory sorting to end expiration and end inspiration (processing time 20 to 40 min) succeeded in all research participants. Bias ± SD for LV mass was 0 ± 5 g when comparing real-time CMR at rest, and 0 ± 7 g when comparing real-time CMR during exercise to ECG-gated at rest. This study presents a semi-automatic algorithm to retrospectively perform respiratory sorting in free breathing real-time CMR. This can facilitate implementation of exercise CMR with non-ECG-gated free breathing real-time imaging, without any additional physiological input.

Effectiveness of Muscle Energy Technique with Free Exercises on Quality of Life in Chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory, symmetrical involvement polyarthritis disease. It affects many tissues in the body. The prevalence of RA in women varies from 0.5 to 3.8% and in men 0.15 to 1.37% with peak incidence in fourth decade of life. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to determine the effect of muscle energy technique (MET) with free exercise on quality of life (QOL) in chronic RA. Materials and Methods: An experimental study was carried out using simple random sampling method during 1 year in Krishna Hospital. Pre- and post-design was used for assessing the study. SPSS software was used for analysis. Result: A total of 30 subjects were involved as per inclusion and exclusion criteria and assessed with numerical rating scale (NRS) and health assessment questionnaire (HAQ). There was only one group. There is statistically significant difference with respect to mean value of NRS is (at rest) 1.30 ± 0.46, (on activity) 3.26 ± 0.58 with P &lt; 0.0001, and HAQ 1.19 ± 0.25 with P &lt; 0.0001. Conclusion: This study concluded that MET with free exercises on QOL in chronic RA has shown significant improvement clinically and statistically on QOL and pain.

Plain Dress in the Docket: Lillian Risser, the Pennsylvania Garb Law, and the Free Exercise of Anabaptist Religion, 1908–1910

ABSTRACT In 1895 Pennsylvania passed the so-called “Garb Law” prohibiting public school teachers from wearing religiously distinctive clothing. Although aimed at Catholic nuns in western Pennsylvania, the law was first enforced in Lancaster County against plain-dressed Mennonite and Brethren school teachers. The 1908 prosecution of Mennonite Lillian Risser and the school board that hired her was the first case to test the law. Although the district court ruled in Risser’s favor, the Superior and Supreme Courts reversed that judgement and upheld the Garb Law, drawing on the precedents provided by John Banister Gibson, a prominent antebellum Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice whose legal legacy had produced a remarkably narrow view of religious free exercise. Risser’s legal challenge remains an important episode in the ongoing debate over the boundaries of religious liberty in Pennsylvania. It also recalls an early example of legal engagement on the part of Pennsylvania’s plain people.

Considerations Regarding the Crime of Preventing the Free Exercise of Religion

Considerations Regarding the Crime of Preventing the Free Exercise of Religion

The Religion Clauses: The Case for Separating Church and State. By Howard Gillman and Erwin Chemerinsky

Professors Gillman and Chemerinsky contend that the religion clauses are most accurately interpreted when they support separationism. Separationism, as they define it, requires a separation of church and state, meaning “the government should be secular; the place for religion is in people’s lives, their homes, and their places of worship” (p. xi). In support of their claim, they provide a synopsis of historical issues, political power, and views toward religion during the colonial era leading to the founding era when our nation’s foundational documents were written and enacted. A key point in their argument relies upon the drastic change from the America of the founding era to the America of the twenty-first century. They accurately point out that current American society is comprised of much more diverse religious groups. They propose variant interpretations of the two religion clauses (Establishment and Free Exercise), namely separation/separation, separation/accommodation, accommodation/separation, and accommodation/accommodation. Under these...

EFFECT OF CLAY THERAPY AND FREE EXERCISE FOR REDUCTION OF ANXIETY IN GERIATRICS- AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Geriatic medicine is a specially categorized that focuses on health care of elderly people. It helps in preventing and treating diseases and disabilities in older adults. Nowadays, anxiety, depression and stress are very common in adults and in geriatrics. Anxiety is one type of felling of uneasiness and worry, which is generalized as an overreaction to any situation. Anxiety is closely related to fear which is response to a real or immediate situation. Clay is a very known material known from prehistoric time in forms such as vases, pots and symbolic gure. Clay therapy involves an intense and powerful tactile experience of touching. Clay therapy having evidence of reduction of anxiety and gave benecial result and free exercise also having evidence of reduction of anxiety .Combination of these two treatment gives remarkable result on reduction of anxiety in geriatric people. The aim of study is to reduce anxiety in old AIM: OBJECTIVE: age people. The objective of the study is to educate the patient about anxiety and to nd out whether clay therapy and free exercise are effective in reduction of anxiety in geriatric. An STUDY DESIGN: Experimental Study in highlight In 6 weeks of intervention; 30 participants with fe METHODS: atures of anxiety were studied. They will be collected by convenience sampling. Pre and post data is collected and analyzed using SPSS 26.0. A signicant improvement is seen in RESULTS: anxiety (p‹0.05) after the treatment was found. Greater statistical signicant improvement was seen in geriatic. The study CONCLUSION: concluded that clay therapy and free exercise is effective in reduction of anxiety for geriatric.