The role of attention and intention in dreams

Traditionally, dreams have been seen as experiences that one cannot control, as something that happensto the dreamer (at times through involvement of supernatural powers), without the dreamer’s permission,volition or agency. This view was famously challenged in the advent of psychoanalysis: in his Interpretation ofDreams, Freud proposed that while we may not be consciously in control of our dreams, our unconscious mindis actively constructing dream content, and that dream content is symptomatic of our repressed, accumulatedneuroses (Freud, 1900/2010). This shift in perspective signaled that dreams may in fact be subject to individualexperience and to one’s mental state (which is something that is possible to change, or even to control),therefore bringing, at least partially, responsibility for dreams to the dreamers themselves. Emergingneuroscience of dreams, in 1970s, however, adopted a more conservative behaviorist position, and for arelatively long time the dominant view has been one of neuro-reductionism, where dreams were seen as randomhallucinatory products of the activity of the sleeping brain (Hobson & McCarley, 1977). In recent years, a more2nuanced picture of dreams is gradually emerging. Research from psychology, philosophy and anthropologyconverges on the idea that dreams may be individual or even collective practices rather than uncontrolled brainevents. Developmentally and temporally, dreaming can be recognized as cognitive achievement (alongside othercognitive abilities, such as memory, perception, attention, etc.) (Foulkes, 2014). And dream qualities, includingwhat is possible in the dream state, how rich the dream experience is, and how well the dream will beremembered, may change as a result of attentional practices during waking hours. Research on dreamincubation, dream sharing and lucid dreams shows that the dreamer is an active participant and co-creator oftheir dream life, and that the dreamer’s agency, awareness and degrees of control are all dynamic, continuousand potentially trainable skills. Further, in line with work on 4E cognition (Menary, 2010) and followingevidence from sensory incorporation studies (Nielsen, 1993, 2017; Sauvageau, Nielsen, & Montplaisir, 1998), ithas been proposed that dreams are not simply experiences of virtual reality confined in the sleeping brain, butrather can be conceptualized as processes of embodied imagination (Thompson, 2014; Solomonova & Sha,2016; Solomonova, 2017), rooted in lived sensorimotor experience and responsive to sensory information fromthe outside world.In this chapter, we review the different ways that attention works in relation to dreams and how it mayfunction in dreams, and apply the framework of attention, proposed in this volume – as a means of accessingand mediating interactions with the world - to the dreaming world. We first review prior work on the role ofattention as 1) access to dreams, e.g., how practices of recording and sharing dreams act as enabling factors forimproving dream recall and enhancing richness of dream experience; and as 2) a mediator of dreams, e.g., howincubation, imagery rehearsal, and ultimately lucidity can be cultivated as cognitive skills enabling agency in thedream experience. We propose that attention functions as a constitutive factor in dream experience and that it isa trainable, developmental cognitive skill. We argue that dreams are not simply experiences that happen to thedreamer, rather, through employing attentional techniques in various ways, the dreamer may cultivate differentdegrees of agency in the dream.

Fashion as a tool for the reinterpretation of the past: The case of Romanian folk costume as inspiration for designers and consumers

This article examines the ways in which fashion reinterprets the past through clothing. Descriptor of evolution, fashion has played an important role in defining attitudes and emotions throughout time. I aim to deconstruct the so-called ethnic style by analysing the Romanian traditional folk costume and its contemporary adaptations as a fashion piece, but also as a token that stimulates memories, emotions and experiences. Therefore, the deconstruction is based on the relationship between ethnic style and nostalgia, a powerful, reactive emotion that stimulates introspection and encourages creativity in new and innovative ways. The past becomes a constitutive factor for ethnic style ‐ being a source of information and inspiration.

Indonesia and The International Refugee Crisis: The Politics of Refugee Protection

This article examines the politics of international refugee protection in Indonesia’s domestic contexts to better understand the discourse of security and protection within the context of Indonesia’s policies and practices in handling refugees This understanding is crucial to find insights relating to the protection gap in the Asia-Pacific region, as Indonesia holds a salient position in advancing the refugee protection regime in the region. Although Indonesia does not seem to employ a specific restrictive asylum and immigration policy as a filtering mechanism to prevent refugee flows from entering their territory, its anxiety and ambivalence to accommodate requests for protection from asylum seekers have characterized its approach towards refugee crises over time. Specifically, this essay analyzed the political discourse and practices in a specific social and political context by historically tracing the experiences of Indonesia in dealing with three refugee crises that took place in the region, namely the Indochinese refugee crisis, the Tampa incident, and the Rohingya humanitarian crisis. It will be argued that the contested discourse and practices of protection in the midst of continuing modulation of insecurity within states are the constitutive factor for the production of state’s approaches to protect refugees. This potentially affected the way states conduct their domestic and foreign policies in the attempt to affirm their national stance towards global refugee phenomena and to avoid greater responsibility without guaranteed cooperative behaviors and solidarity from other counterparts.

SLX4IP acts with SLX4 and XPF–ERCC1 to promote interstrand crosslink repair

Interstrand crosslinks (ICLs) are highly toxic DNA lesions that are repaired via a complex process requiring the coordination of several DNA repair pathways. Defects in ICL repair result in Fanconi anemia, which is characterized by bone marrow failure, developmental abnormalities, and a high incidence of malignancies. SLX4, also known as FANCP, acts as a scaffold protein and coordinates multiple endonucleases that unhook ICLs, resolve homologous recombination intermediates, and perhaps remove unhooked ICLs. In this study, we explored the role of SLX4IP, a constitutive factor in the SLX4 complex, in ICL repair. We found that SLX4IP is a novel regulatory factor; its depletion sensitized cells to treatment with ICL-inducing agents and led to accumulation of cells in the G2/M phase. We further discovered that SLX4IP binds to SLX4 and XPF–ERCC1 simultaneously and that disruption of one interaction also disrupts the other. The binding of SLX4IP to both SLX4 and XPF–ERCC1 not only is vital for maintaining the stability of SLX4IP protein, but also promotes the interaction between SLX4 and XPF–ERCC1, especially after DNA damage. Collectively, these results demonstrate a new regulatory role for SLX4IP in maintaining an efficient SLX4–XPF–ERCC1 complex in ICL repair.

EDUCATIONAL CAPITAL AS A CONSTITUTIVE FACTOR OF THE CONTEMPORARY SOCIO-MORAL ORDER

Modern societies need mainly extensive educational resources for their development. The basic educational need in this area is the possibility of establishing contacts between groups of cooperating people and in this way building educational capital. Simultaneously, increasing role of education is accompanied by its crisis, which is said to be overcome by changing paradigms in social structure. In the face of formal education crisis, processes of building educational capital are transferred informally to social websites. The resource which is educational capital is one of the key factors determining the disposition of a given society for the development and maintenance of socio-moral order, based on democratic principles of social life. The cult of education begins to develop as a panacea for pains of the transforming society. Access to educational services becomes more and more important and even more significant than other human rights. As far as social development is concerned, role of technocracy (possession of knowledge) loses its significance and role of educracy - ideology of pervasive education - is growing (ability to make use of acquired knowledge). The conducted analysis attempts to answer the question of whether and to what extent educational capital is a constitutive resource of social and moral.

Meal Enjoyment and Tolerance in Women and Men

Various conditioning factors influence the sensory response to a meal (inducible factors). We hypothesized that inherent characteristics of the eater (constitutive factors) also play a role. The aim of this proof-of-concept study was to determine the role of gender, as an individual constitutive factor, on the meal-related experience. Randomized parallel trial in 10 women and 10 men, comparing the sensations before, during, and after stepwise ingestion of a comfort meal up to full satiation. Comparisons were performed by repeated Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) measures. During stepwise ingestion, satisfaction initially increased up to a peak, and later decreased down to a nadir at the point of full satiation. Interestingly, the amount of food consumed at the well-being peak was lower, and induced significantly less fullness in women than in men. Hence, men required a larger meal load and stronger homeostatic sensations to achieve satisfaction. The same pattern was observed at the level of full satiation: men ate more and still experienced positive well-being, whereas in women, well-being scores dropped below pre-meal level. The effect of gender on the ingestion experience suggests that other constitutive factors of the eater may also influence responses to meals.

The “Gutenberg Galaxy” and the Historical Study of the New Testament

The general thesis of this essay states that Gutenberg’s print revolution has been a constitutive factor in the formation of the modern scholarship of the Bible. Specifically, the essay explores the historical-critical study of the New Testament from the angle of the typographic medium. Gutenberg’s print Bible is explained as setting the standards for the technologically-organised typographic space. The bulk of the essay describes both the constructive and the deconstructive impact that the fully rationalised format of the Bible has had on theological, exegetical, and hermeneutical sensibilities. Among the issues illuminated by the typographic examination are: entirely identical biblical texts; a text-centred concept of Christian origins; the spread of a post-Gutenberg intellectualism; the rise of the critical, textual edition; the Protestant principle of sola scriptura; the diminution of oral, memorial sensibilities; the premise of originality versus derivativeness, and many others. In all, it is argued that the print medium deeply affected the modern academic scholarship of the New Testament, for better and for worse.

The Role of Learning Resource Centers at the Northern Border University in Increasing the Academic Achievement in English Language Courses

The study aims at understanding the relationship between the use of IT applications in the Learning Resources Centers (henceforth, LRCs) at the university and increasing the academic achievement of the English language students at the Faculty of Education and Literature at the Northern Border University? The researcher relied on the research methodology of the field study, which allowed him to collect the views of a random sample of the English language learners at the university to measure and analyze the effectiveness of the use of IT within the LRCs. The study showed that the IT within the LRCs is one of the most important strategic resources at the level of educational institutions and the main factor in the development of its sectors. There is an interest from the Northern Border University on upgrading and supporting the IT infrastructure, especially in education for it is the basis for community development. A high proportion of English Language students at the university are keen on using and applying many of the technological learning media within the LRCs as a constitutive factor in understanding mental processes such as visualization, thinking, learning and creativity which is the first step towards knowledge and innovation.

“Neither here nor there”: traces of the feminine in the photoperformances of Ana Mendieta

This article addresses the questions triggered by the work of the Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta, who has a large part of her work composed exclusively of camera performances and what she termed earth-body-works. Through her strategies of representation based on the disappearance of the female body, Mendieta draws our attention to the legitimized violence and erasures through the establishment of fixed identities – ethnic and gender – within the hegemonic discourses of power. The notions of performance as an instrument for transmission of knowledge and cultural memory, of performativity as a constitutive factor of the categories of identity, as well as of archive, repertory and live event will be explored in the effort to problematize as the themes of exile and feminine, regular in the art of Mendieta, reach a deeply political dimension based on their artistic propositions that integrate photography with performance art.

Revisiting a family approach in youth ministry

The primary aim of this article is to reflect on the ‘family’ of a family approach in youth ministry. The overall aim of the article is to confirm the importance of family as social and, specifically, a religious institution. Therefore, a family approach in youth ministry is of utmost importance, but it is argued that it is more feasible if the responsibility is taken up to continuously reflect on being a family in contemporary society. That implies that reflection on family is as much a cultural task as a theological task. Therefore, an interdisciplinary reflection is valued as cultural, is multifaceted and an ever chancing phenomenon. One of the outstanding characteristic of families today is diversity. Diversity, with regards to family, is mostly related to the structure of family and attention has therefore been paid to it in a section of this article. It is argued that diversity should not be perceived as negative, because, despite of the diverse structure of family, constructive relationships is proposed as the binding and constitutive factor in being a family. The focus on relatedness moves beyond blood ties to relatedness and solidarity as fundamental for our humanness. Thatcher (2007:6) differentiates between a structural and relational approach to family. A relational approach is opted here with the emphasis on the quality of the dimension of the relationships. These relationships are also understood to be grounded in theological sources such as the Person of God and the church.