Kindersegen und effektive Rituale: Die Jesuiten in China zwischen lokalen Heilspraktiken, tridentinischer Norm und konfuzianischer Obrigkeit

In christlichen Gemeinden, die im 17. Jahrhundert in zahlreichen chinesischen Provinzen entstanden, versuchten die Jesuiten deshalb vor allem, die Heilsbedürfnisse der Gläubigen vor Ort zu befriedigen. Da in der chinesischen Gesellschaft die Fortsetzung der männlichen Linie von grosser Wichtigkeit war, war Kindersegen ein Anliegen erster Ordnung, dem die Jesuiten mit ihren Ritualen zu begegnen hatten. Sie setzten christliche Heilsobjekte oft gegen Kinderlosigkeit ein und standen Frauen bei schwierigen Niederkünften bei. Mit solchen Heilspraktiken, die in China traditionellerweise von lokalen religiösen Spezialisten ausgeführt wurden, traten die Missionare in Konkurrenz mit anderen Anbietern auf dem chinesischen Heilsmarkt. Der Vortrag beleuchtet die Rolle der Jesuiten als religiöse Spezialisten in lokalen christlichen Gemeinden und fragt nach den Spannungen, die sich zwischen dieser Rolle einerseits und den Rollen als katholische Missionare und konfuzianische Literati andererseits ergaben.

The mentalizing network orchestrates the impact of parochial altruism on social norm enforcement.

Parochial altruism - a preference for altruistic behavior towards ingroup members and mistrust or hostility towards outgroup members--is a pervasive feature in human society and strongly shapes the enforcement of social norms. Since the uniqueness of human society critically depends on the enforcement of norms, the understanding of the neural circuitry of the impact of parochial altruism on social norm enforcement is key, but unexplored. To fill this gap, we measured brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while subjects had the opportunity to punish ingroup members and outgroup members for violating social norms. Findings revealed that subjects' strong punishment of defecting outgroup members is associated with increased activity in a functionally connected network involved in sanction-related decisions (right orbitofrontal gyrus, right lateral prefrontal cortex, right dorsal caudatus). Moreover, the stronger the connectivity in this network, the more outgroup members are punished. In contrast, the much weaker punishment of ingroup members who committed the very same norm violation is associated with increased activity and connectivity in the mentalizing-network (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, bilateral temporo-parietal junction), as if subjects tried to understand or justify ingroup members' behavior. Finally, connectivity analyses between the two networks suggest that the mentalizing-network modulates punishment by affecting the activity in the right orbitofrontal gyrus and right lateral prefrontal cortex, notably in the same areas showing enhanced activity and connectivity whenever third-parties strongly punished defecting outgroup members.

Explaining car drivers' intention to prevent road-traffic noise: An application of the Norm Activation Model

Strengthening car drivers’ intention to prevent road-traffic noise is a first step toward noise abatement through voluntary change of behavior. We analyzed predictors of this intention based on the norm activation model (i.e., personal norm, problem awareness, awareness of consequences, social norm, and value orientations). Moreover, we studied the effects of noise exposure, noise sensitivity, and noise annoyance on problem awareness. Data came from 1,002 car drivers who participated in a two-wave longitudinal survey over 4 months. Personal norm had a large prospective effect on intention, even when the previous level of intention was controlled for, and mediated the effect of all other variables on intention. Almost 60% of variance in personal norm was explained by problem awareness, social norm, and biospheric value orientation. The effects of noise sensitivity and noise exposure on problem awareness were small and mediated by noise annoyance. We propose four communication strategies for strengthening the intention to prevent road-traffic noise in car drivers.

Norm and Anomaly in the Jewish Life of Jesus (Toledot Yeshu)

The Toledoth Yeshu, the “Generation,” or “Life of Jesus,” have been described as an anti-Gospel, or a parody of the Gospel. This protean tradition, witnessed in more than hundred manuscripts and printed editions, offers a “counter-history” of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity. According to this mischievous narrative Jesus was an illegitimate child turned charlatan, and his disciples a bunch of violent and senseless rogues who continued to stir up trouble in Israel even following their leader’s shameful hanging. The Toledoth Yeshu is the story of an anomaly (Jesus and the birth of Christianity). It is also a story about confusion: marital confusion, social confusion, and religious confusion. As an exercise in “historical imagination,” the Toledoth Yeshu offers a narrative of religions compared, and a reflection on social and religious borders, on their instability and fragility, and ultimately on their necessity. The present paper will explore the normative dimension of the Toledoth Yeshu tradition: the way the “disorder of things” the narrative relates also conveys a powerful discourse on social and religious norms. We will also seek to map this tradition in the broader context of medieval Jewish discussions on Jesus (particularly Maimonides) as a “case” in the religious history of mankind, addressing issues of false prophecy, religious deviation, transgression, and heresy.

Norm fir di zemṭlichn miṭglidr des adminisṭratziohns-korps der jidišen gemeinde in Berlin

Übers. d. Hauptsacht.: Ordnung für alle Mitglieder des Verwaltungsrats der Jüdischen Gemeinde in Berlin

Norm enforcement in the city revisited: An international field experiment of altruistic punishment, norm maintenance, and broken windows

In laboratory experiments, people are willing to sanction norms at a cost—a behavioral tendency called altruistic punishment. However, the degree to which these findings can be generalized to real-world interactions is still debated. Only a small number of field experiments have been conducted, and initial results suggest that punishment is less frequent outside of the lab. This study replicates one of the first field experiments on altruistic punishment and builds ties to research on norm compliance and the broken windows theory. The original study addressed the enforcement of the anti-littering norm in Athens. We replicate this study in Bern, Zurich, and New York City. As an extension, we investigate how the experimental context (clean vs littered) impacts social norm enforcement. As a second extension, we investigate how opportunity structure impacts the maintenance of the anti-littering norm. Findings indicate that norms are universally enforced, although significantly less than in the standard laboratory experiment,and that enforcement is significantly more common in Switzerland than in New York. Moreover, individuals prefer more subtle forms of enforcement to direct punishment. We also find that enforcement is less frequent in littered than in clean contexts, suggesting that broken windows might not only foster deviant behavior but also weaken informal social control. Finally, we find that opportunity structure can encourage people to maintain norms, as indicated by the fact that people are more likely to voluntarily pick up litter when it is closer to a trash bin.

A comparative analysis of Texas and Louisiana Oil-field NORM Waste Policy

NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material) Waste Policies for the nation's oil and gas producing states have been in existence since the 1980's, when Louisiana was the first state to develop a NORM regulatory program in 1989. Since that time, expectations for NORM Waste Policies have evolved, as Health, Safety, Environment, and Social responsibility (HSE & SR) grows increasingly important to the public. Therefore, the oil and gas industry's safety and environmental performance record will face challenges in the future, about its best practices for managing the co-production of NORM wastes. ^ Within the United States, NORM is not federally regulated. The U.S. EPA claims it regulates NORM under CERCLA (superfund) and the Clean Water Act. Though, there are no universally applicable regulations for radium-based NORM waste. Therefore, individual states have taken responsibility for developing NORM regulatory programs, because of the potential radiological risk it can pose to man (bone and lung cancer) and his environment. This has led to inconsistencies in NORM Waste Policies as well as a NORM management gap in both state and federal regulatory structures. ^ Fourteen different NORM regulations and guidelines were compared between Louisiana and Texas, the nation's top two petroleum producing states. Louisiana is the country's top crude oil producer when production from its Federal offshore waters are included, and fourth in crude oil production, behind Texas, Alaska, and California when Federal offshore areas are excluded. Louisiana produces more petroleum products than any state but Texas. For these reasons, a comparative analysis between Louisiana and Texas was undertaken to identify differences in their NORM regulations and guidelines for managing, handling and disposing NORM wastes. Moreover, this analysis was undertaken because Texas is the most explored and drilled worldwide and yet appears to lag behind its neighboring state in terms of its NORM Waste Policy and developing an industry standard for handling, managing and disposing NORM. As a result of this analysis, fourteen recommendations were identified.^

Novel Imaging-Based Techniques Reveal a Role for PD-1/PD-L1 in Tumor Immune Surveillance in the Lung

The binding of immune inhibitory receptor Programmed Death 1 (PD-1) on T cells to its ligand PD-L1 has been implicated as a major contributor to tumor induced immune suppression. Clinical trials of PD-L1 blockade have proven effective in unleashing therapeutic anti-tumor immune responses in a subset of patients with advanced melanoma, yet current response rates are low for reasons that remain unclear. Hypothesizing that the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway regulates T cell surveillance within the tumor microenvironment, we employed intravital microscopy to investigate the in vivo impact of PD-L1 blocking antibody upon tumor-associated immune cell migration. However, current analytical methods of intravital dynamic microscopy data lack the ability to identify cellular targets of T cell interactions in vivo, a crucial means for discovering which interactions are modulated by therapeutic intervention. By developing novel imaging techniques that allowed us to better analyze tumor progression and T cell dynamics in the microenvironment; we were able to explore the impact of PD-L1 blockade upon the migratory properties of tumor-associated immune cells, including T cells and antigen presenting cells, in lung tumor progression. Our results demonstrate that early changes in tumor morphology may be indicative of responsiveness to anti-PD-L1 therapy. We show that immune cells in the tumor microenvironment as well as tumors themselves express PD-L1, but immune phenotype alone is not a predictive marker of effective anti-tumor responses. Through a novel method in which we quantify T cell interactions, we show that T cells are largely engaged in interactions with dendritic cells in the tumor microenvironment. Additionally, we show that during PD-L1 blockade, non-activated T cells are recruited in greater numbers into the tumor microenvironment and engage more preferentially with dendritic cells. We further show that during PD-L1 blockade, activated T cells engage in more confined, immune synapse-like interactions with dendritic cells, as opposed to more dynamic, kinapse-like interactions with dendritic cells when PD-L1 is free to bind its receptor. By advancing the contextual analysis of anti-tumor immune surveillance in vivo, this study implicates the interaction between T cells and tumor-associated dendritic cells as a possible modulator in targeting PD-L1 for anti-tumor immunotherapy.

Spatially explicit estimates of stock size, structure and biomass of North Atlantic albacore tuna (Thunnus alalunga) in the North Atlantic for the period 1956-1972, compiled from statistics about ICCAT fishery region L1

The development of the ecosystem approach and models for the management of ocean marine resources requires easy access to standard validated datasets of historical catch data for the main exploited species. They are used to measure the impact of biomass removal by fisheries and to evaluate the models skills, while the use of standard dataset facilitates models inter-comparison. North Atlantic albacore tuna is exploited all year round by longline and in summer and autumn by surface fisheries and fishery statistics compiled by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Catch and effort with geographical coordinates at monthly spatial resolution of 1° or 5° squares were extracted for this species with a careful definition of fisheries and data screening. In total, thirteen fisheries were defined for the period 1956-2010, with fishing gears longline, troll, mid-water trawl and bait fishing. However, the spatialized catch effort data available in ICCAT database represent a fraction of the entire total catch. Length frequencies of catch were also extracted according to the definition of fisheries above for the period 1956-2010 with a quarterly temporal resolution and spatial resolutions varying from 1°x 1° to 10°x 20°. The resolution used to measure the fish also varies with size-bins of 1, 2 or 5 cm (Fork Length). The screening of data allowed detecting inconsistencies with a relatively large number of samples larger than 150 cm while all studies on the growth of albacore suggest that fish rarely grow up over 130 cm. Therefore, a threshold value of 130 cm has been arbitrarily fixed and all length frequency data above this value removed from the original data set.