Charisma as attachment to the divine: Some Hasidic principles for comparison of social movements of Gandhi, Nasser, Ben-Gurion, and King (Volumes I and II)

This study provides a comprehensive theory of charismatic relationships which, consistent with the original meaning of the term charisma, emphasizes the followers\u27 belief that their leader is attached to their perception of the divine. In that the process of theory development shows its application to several modern leader-follower relationships, analysts can use the theory to examine such relationships in a variety of social settings. The theory was developed from an ideal type model based on Hasidism, a significant Jewish religious movement which centers on the zaddik. Literally, zaddik means righteous and is applied to an individual who is believed to have a special relationship with God, and in Hasidism his role expanded to include tasks of leadership in all spheres of Hasidic life. The ideal type model, constructed in twenty propositions, was compared to the characteristics of four twentieth century leader-follower relationships which occurred in political and civil, that is secular, mass movements. The empirical data came from biographies, historical accounts, and personal remembrances describing the political, social, and personal relationships of the following charismatic leaders: (1) Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi--India; (2) Gamal Abdul Nasser--Egypt; (3) David Ben-Gurion--Israel; (4) Martin Luther King, Jr.--United States. The comparative analyses revealed that the leader-follower relationships of Gandhi and Nasser conformed to the model, but that those of Ben-Gurion and King did not conform to all propositions. It was found that the distinguishing features of charismatic relationships are that followers (1) believe the charismatic leader to be imbued with superhuman qualities, (2) believe that he has a divinely sanctioned mission, and (3) express those beliefs by showing him reverence and paying him homage. In other words, followers regard their leader as having divinely ordained, superhuman qualities. Specific research for applications of the theoretical model is suggested, and a model for mass social movements, a by-product of the study, is also described

Religiosity and mental wellbeing among members of majority and minority religions: findings from Understanding Society, The UK Household Longitudinal Study

It is unclear if links between religiosity and mental health are found in contexts outside the US or are causal. We examined differences in mental wellbeing and associations between mental wellbeing and religiosity among the religiously unaffiliated, white and non-white Christians, Muslims of Pakistani, Bangladeshi and other ethnicities, and other minority ethnoreligious groups. We used four waves of Understanding Society, a UK longitudinal household panel (2009–2013, N=50922). We adjusted for potential confounders (including socioeconomic factors and personality) and for household fixed effects to account for household level unobserved confounding factors. Compared with those with no religious affiliation, Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslims and members of other minority religions had worse wellbeing (as measured by Shortened Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)). Higher subjective importance of religion was associated with lower wellbeing according to GHQ; associations were not found with SWEMWBS. More frequent religious service attendance was associated with higher wellbeing; effect sizes were larger for those with religious affiliations. These associations were only partially attenuated by adjustment for potential confounding factors including household fixed effects. Religious service attendance and/or its secular alternatives may have a role in improving population-wide mental wellbeing

Behavioral tasks sensitive to acute abstinence and predictive of smoking cessation success:a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Performance on cognitive tasks may be sensitive to acute smoking abstinence and may also predict whether quit attempts fail. Our aim was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to identify cognitive tasks sensitive to acute abstinence and predictive of smoking cessation success.METHODS: Embase, Medline, PsycInfo and Web of Science were searched up to March 2016. Studies were included if they enrolled adults and assessed smoking using used a quantitative measure. Studies were combined in a random effects meta-analysis.RESULTS: We included 42 acute abstinence studies and 13 cessation studies were included. There was evidence for an effect of abstinence on delay discounting [d = 0.26, 95% CI 0.07 to 0.45, p = 0.005], response inhibition [d = 0.48, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.70, p &lt; 0.001], mental arithmetic [d = 0.38, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.70, p = 0.018], and recognition memory [d = 0.46, 95% CI 0.23 to 0.70, p &lt; 0.001]. In contrast performance on the Stroop [d =0 .17, 95% CI -0.17 to 0.51, p = 0.333] and smoking Stroop [d = 0.03, 95% CI -0.11 to 0.17, p = 0.675] task was not influenced by abstinence. We found only weak evidence for an effect of acute abstinence on dot probe task performance [d = 0.15, 95% CI -0.01 to 0.32, p = 0.072]. The design of the cessation studies was too heterogeneous to permit meta-analysis.CONCLUSIONS: Compared with satiated smokers, acutely abstinent smokers display higher delay discounting, lower response inhibition, impaired arithmetic, and recognition memory performance. However, reaction time measures of cognitive bias appear to be unaffected by acute tobacco abstinence. Conclusions about cognitive tasks that predict smoking cessation success were limited by methodological inconsistencies.</p

Evaluating Puget Sound Marine Protected Areas to Improve MPA Policy and Implementation

In 2009, an inventory concluded there were 127 MPAs across the State of Washington. Despite this large number, relatively little is known about how well the MPAs are managed or how to improve their effectiveness, particularly in the Puget Sound. To understand how Puget Sound MPAs function from a social-ecological perspective, we will investigate the following key research questions: (1) What conditions and processes lead to successful MPA implementation?; (2) What are the opportunities for Puget Sound MPA planning processes to improve MPA management effectiveness and declare new, successful MPAs?; and (3) Should MPAs be used to increase social-ecological resilience in response to rockfish recovery needs, habitat loss, changing use patterns of Puget Sound resources, ocean acidification, and concomitant climate stresses? We will investigate these questions using literature reviews, key informant interviews, survey instruments, semi-structured interviews, and reviews of ecological monitoring data. Additionally, we will perform a scenario-planning workshop to improve MPA management, help resolve long-standing disagreements between various constituency groups, and possibly identify new MPA sites. We will also investigate whether impacts from climate change could serve as a potential “common ground” between disparate stakeholders for designing and evaluating spatial conservation strategies in a changing environment. Treaty tribes, who have unique rights and authorities as resource co-managers, are explicitly included in our research and scenario planning exercise. The objective of our presentation is to share our preliminary project design and solicit feedback to potentially improve it

Integrated Ecosystem Assessments: Developing the Scientific Basis for Ecosystem-Based Management of the Ocean

Integrated ecosystem assessments challenge the broader scientific community to move beyond the important task of tallying insults to marine ecosystems to developing quantitative tools that can support the decisions national and regional resource managers must make

Non-Standard Errors

In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: Non-standard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for better reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants

Stratification by Smoking Status Reveals an Association of CHRNA5-A3-B4 Genotype with Body Mass Index in Never Smokers

Peer reviewe

Investigating the possible causal association of smoking with depression and anxiety using Mendelian randomisation meta-analysis : the CARTA consortium

Peer reviewe

Heavier smoking may lead to a relative increase in waist circumference : evidence for causal relationship from a Mendelian iandomisation meta-analysis. The CARTA consortium

Objectives: To investigate, using a Mendelian randomisation approach, whether heavier smoking is associated with a range of regional adiposity phenotypes, in particular those related to abdominal adiposity. Design: Mendelian randomisation meta-analyses using a genetic variant (rs16969968/rs1051730 in the CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 gene region) as a proxy for smoking heaviness, of the associations of smoking heaviness with a range of adiposity phenotypes. Participants: 148 731 current, former and neversmokers of European ancestry aged >= 16 years from 29 studies in the consortium for Causal Analysis Research in Tobacco and Alcohol (CARTA). Primary outcome measures: Waist and hip circumferences, and waist-hip ratio. Results: The data included up to 66 809 never-smokers, 43 009 former smokers and 38 913 current daily cigarette smokers. Among current smokers, for each extra minor allele, the geometric mean was lower for waist circumference by -0.40% (95% Cl -0.57% to - 0.22%), with effects on hip circumference, waist-hip ratio and body mass index (BMI) being -0.31% (95% Cl - 0.42% to -0.19), -0.08% (-0.19% to 0.03%) and - 0.74% (-0.96% to -0.51%), respectively. In contrast, among never-smokers, these effects were higher by 0.23% (0.09% to 0.36%), 0.17% (0.08% to 0.26%), 0.07% (-0.01% to 0.15%) and 0.35% (0.18% to 0.52%), respectively. When adjusting the three central adiposity measures for BMI, the effects among current smokers changed direction and were higher by 0.14% (0.05% to 0.22%) for waist circumference, 0.02% (-0.05% to 0.08%) for hip circumference and 0.10% (0.02% to 0.19%) for waist-hip ratio, for each extra minor allele. Conclusions: For a given BMI, a gene variant associated with increased cigarette consumption was associated with increased waist circumference. Smoking in an effort to control weight may lead to accumulation of central adiposity.Peer reviewe

Decision-Making and Action Taking: Fisheries Management in a Changing Climate

Decision-makers in fisheries management are confronted with the challenge of how to respond to existing and predicted changes in ocean conditions that are likely to affect the stocks of fish they manage. In order to address climate change most research and thinking advises decision-makers to ensure that fisheries are well-managed and abundant in an ecosystem context. These policies can best allow fisheries to adapt to changing climate. To address climate change, decision-makers should carefully monitor changing conditions and potential changes in factors affecting fish stock abundance. An adaptive approach to fisheries management under conditions of climate change requires that decision-makers engage with fishing interests in a transparent manner and in ways that respect the input of fishing interests and in ways that acknowledge the levels of uncertainty. This approach implies a governance approach to management that is closer to co-management or shared management responsibility than in most hierarchical processes that characterize fishery management to date. The answer to the question of when fishery decision-makers should begin to incorporate climate change into decision making processes is that they should have started yesterday. The justification for this is that even today, climate variability can affect fishery management decisions and the sooner this is understood and incorporated into the management process the better. In economic terms, a conservative decision relative to fisheries management is likely to produce a positive long term benefit whereas the failure to recognize the need to act in time may have serious immediate negative consequences especially when compounded by inadequate management. While climate change can also produce positive consequences for some species a note of caution is still advised in anticipating and responding to such opportunities.governance, climate change, fishery policy, fisheries management, global warming, international fisheries, ecosystems