A dynamic systems view of habits

This paper explores some of the insights offered by a dynamic systems approach into the nature of habits. “Dynamic systems approach” is used here as an umbrella term for studies of cognition, behavior, or development as systems of elements that change over time (e.g., Thelen and Smith, 1994, 2006), while “dynamical systems” is reserved for studies that use differential equations to describe time-based systems (e.g., Schöner and Kelso, 1988; Tschacher and Dauwalder, 2003). The following discussion draws primarily from the coordination dynamics research of Kelso (1995, 2012), which stems from Haken's theory of synergetics (1977, 2003). However, the view of habits presented here is more of an interpretive application than a literature review, as the work on which it draws does not address habits explicitly. Perhaps this is because conventional notions of habit are too broad and loose to be captured succinctly in dynamic terms. Dynamical studies of human behavior have focused on more specific capacities such as motor coordination (Thelen et al., 1987), perception (Tuller et al., 1994), and learning (Kostrubiec et al., 2012). Yet this variety of applications suggests that the scope of the dynamic approach overlaps significantly with the domain of habits, so that dynamic concepts could be used to challenge and refine our conventional notions of habitual behavior. Accordingly, the goal of this paper is to raise questions about the nature of habits rather than present a comprehensive scientific theory

Ordinary religious experience, learning and adaptation: a call for interdisciplinary inquiry

Within disciplines of religious studies, discussions of religious experience tend to revolve around the most rare and extraordinary cases, while neglecting much more common varieties of “ordinary religious experience”—that is, experiences of regular practitioners in the midst of normal religious activities such as worship or prayer. This comment will, first, call attention to this essential aspect of religious life, and, second, will suggest ways in which it can be made more accessible to investigation. This article suggests that researchers focus on the variability of engagement in religious practice and the processes of learning and adaptation by which regular practitioners enhance their experience of religious practice. It also suggests that ethnographic studies be extended by carefully selected theories of perception and cognition that address the role of material conditions in ordinary religious experience

Religious symbolism and the experience of life as meaningful: addition, enhancement, or both?

This paper explores the question of how religious symbolism functions to provide a more meaningful or enriched experience of life. It examines a common and highly influential view, referred to here as the “source model”, for which this function requires the addition to experience of transcendent meanings generated by rituals and other specially adapted kinds of symbolic activity. Using Robert Bellah’s Religion in Human Evolution and Clifford Geertz’s “Religion as a Cultural System” as representative examples, I critique a key premise of the source model, namely that the meaning-making function of religious symbolism evolved in response to a universal experience of life as problematic. I argue that the experience of life as problematic is a product of symbolism, not a precondition. Moreover, with respect to this experience, I propose that symbolism functions not to add meaning but to enhance meanings that are vaguely discerned in everyday life. I close with the suggestion that an enhanced experience of life as problematic is itself a kind of enriched meaning and an important source of the affective power of religious practice

El profesor de música como actor de cambio social en proyectos de Estados Unidos, Ecuador, Bolivia y Argentina inspirados en el sistema de orquestas infantiles y juveniles de Venezuela : una aproximación al paradigma relacional de Pierpaolo Donati y el marco morfogenético para el realismo social de Margaret Archer

La presente investigación propone situar al profesor de música como actor de cambio social en contextos de desarrollo en Argentina, Bolivia, Estados Unidos y Ecuador, a través de programas inspirados en El Sistema de Orquestas Infantiles y Juveniles de Venezuela. A partir del paradigma relacional de Pierpaolo Donati y el marco morfogenético para el realismo social de Margaret Archer se busca conocer las experiencias de profesores de música para establecer cómo la relación es la base de los cambios sociales generados en los distintos contextos; argumentando que los bienes relacionales que producen son consecuencia única y directa de la interacción entre sujetos relacionales individuales y colectivos

Common Gene Variants in the Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) and TNF Receptor Superfamilies and NF-kB Transcription Factors and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Risk

BACKGROUND:A promoter polymorphism in the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF) (TNF G-308A) is associated with increased non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) risk. The protein product, TNF-alpha, activates the nuclear factor kappa beta (NF-kappaB) transcription factor, and is critical for inflammatory and apoptotic responses in cancer progression. We hypothesized that the TNF and NF-kappaB pathways are important for NHL and that gene variations across the pathways may alter NHL risk. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:We genotyped 500 tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 48 candidate gene regions (defined as 20 kb 5', 10 kb 3') in the TNF and TNF receptor superfamilies and the NF-kappaB and related transcription factors, in 1946 NHL cases and 1808 controls pooled from three independent population-based case-control studies. We obtained a gene region-level summary of association by computing the minimum p-value ("minP test"). We used logistic regression to compute odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for NHL and four major NHL subtypes in relation to SNP genotypes and haplotypes. For NHL, the tail strength statistic supported an overall relationship between the TNF/NF-kappaB pathway and NHL (p = 0.02). We confirmed the association between TNF/LTA on chromosome 6p21.3 with NHL and found the LTA rs2844484 SNP most significantly and specifically associated with the major subtype, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) (p-trend = 0.001). We also implicated for the first time, variants in NFKBIL1 on chromosome 6p21.3, associated with NHL. Other gene regions identified as statistically significantly associated with NHL included FAS, IRF4, TNFSF13B, TANK, TNFSF7 and TNFRSF13C. Accordingly, the single most significant SNPs associated with NHL were FAS rs4934436 (p-trend = 0.0024), IRF4 rs12211228 (p-trend = 0.0026), TNFSF13B rs2582869 (p-trend = 0.0055), TANK rs1921310 (p-trend = 0.0025), TNFSF7 rs16994592 (p-trend = 0.0024), and TNFRSF13C rs6002551 (p-trend = 0.0074). All associations were consistent in each study with no apparent specificity for NHL subtype. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE:Our results provide consistent evidence that variation in the TNF superfamily of genes and specifically within chromosome 6p21.3 impacts lymphomagenesis. Further characterization of these susceptibility loci and identification of functional variants are warranted

Analysis of SNPs and Haplotypes in Vitamin D Pathway Genes and Renal Cancer Risk

In the kidney vitamin D is converted to its active form. Since vitamin D exerts its activity through binding to the nuclear vitamin D receptor (VDR), most genetic studies have primarily focused on variation within this gene. Therefore, analysis of genetic variation in VDR and other vitamin D pathway genes may provide insight into the role of vitamin D in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) etiology. RCC cases (N = 777) and controls (N = 1,035) were genotyped to investigate the relationship between RCC risk and variation in eight target genes. Minimum-p-value permutation (Min-P) tests were used to identify genes associated with risk. A three single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sliding window was used to identify chromosomal regions with a False Discovery Rate of <10%, where subsequently, haplotype relative risks were computed in Haplostats. Min-P values showed that VDR (p-value = 0.02) and retinoid-X-receptor-alpha (RXRA) (p-value = 0.10) were associated with RCC risk. Within VDR, three haplotypes across two chromosomal regions of interest were identified. The first region, located within intron 2, contained two haplotypes that increased RCC risk by approximately 25%. The second region included a haplotype (rs2239179, rs12717991) across intron 4 that increased risk among participants with the TC (OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.09–1.57) haplotype compared to participants with the common haplotype, TT. Across RXRA, one haplotype located 3′ of the coding sequence (rs748964, rs3118523), increased RCC risk 35% among individuals with the variant haplotype compared to those with the most common haplotype. This study comprehensively evaluated genetic variation across eight vitamin D pathway genes in relation to RCC risk. We found increased risk associated with VDR and RXRA. Replication studies are warranted to confirm these findings