Interpreting physical sensations to guide health-related behavior

SummaryFrom a biopsychosocial perspective, maintaining health requires sufficient autoregulatory and self-regulatory capacity to both regulate somatic physiology and manage human-environment interactions. Increasing evidence from neuroscientific and psychological research suggests a functional link between so called interoceptive awareness and self-regulatory behavior. Self-regulation can, again, influence autoregulatory patterns as it is known from biofeedback training or meditation practices. In this review, we propose the psychosomatic competence model that provides a novel framework for the interrelation between interoceptive and self-regulatiory skills and health behavior. The term psychosomatic competence refers to a set of mind- and body-related abilities which foster an adequate interpretation of interoceptive signals to drive health-related behavior and physical well-being. Current related empirical findings and future directions of research on interoception and self-regulation are discussed.

Who accepts nudges? nudge acceptability from a self-regulation perspective

Background Public acceptability of nudging is receiving increasingly more attention, but studies remain limited to evaluations of aspects of the nudge itself or (inferred intentions) of the nudger. Yet, it is important to investigate which individuals are likely to accept nudges, as those who are supposed to benefit from the implementation should not oppose it. The main objective of this study was to integrate research on self-regulation and nudging, and to examine acceptability of nudges as a function of self-regulation capacity and motivation. Method Participants (N = 301) filled in questionnaires about several components of self-regulation capacity (self-control, proactive coping competence, self-efficacy, perceived control and perceived difficulty) and motivation (autonomous motivation and controlled motivation). To evaluate nudge acceptability, we used three vignettes describing three types of nudges (default, portion size, and rearrangement) that stimulated either a pro-self behavior (healthy eating) or pro-social behavior (sustainable eating) and asked participants to rate the nudges on (aspects of) acceptability. Results Results revealed that there were substantial differences in acceptability between the three types of nudges, such that the default nudge was seen as less acceptable and the rearrangement nudge as most acceptable. The behavior that was stimulated did not affect acceptability, even though the nudges that targeted healthy eating were seen as more pro-self than the nudges targeting sustainable eating. From all self-regulation components, autonomous motivation was the only measure that was consistently associated with nudge acceptability across the three nudges. For self-regulatory capacity, only some elements were occasionally related to acceptability for some nudges. Conclusion The current study thus shows that people are more inclined to accept nudges that target behaviors that they are autonomously motivated for, while people do not meaningfully base their judgments of acceptability on self-regulatory capacity.

Massively parallel identification of functionally consequential noncoding genetic variants in undiagnosed rare disease patients

Clinical whole genome sequencing has enabled the discovery of potentially pathogenic noncoding variants in the genomes of rare disease patients with a prior history of negative genetic testing. However, interpreting the functional consequences of noncoding variants and distinguishing those that contribute to disease etiology remains a challenge. Here we address this challenge by experimentally profiling the functional consequences of rare noncoding variants detected in a cohort of undiagnosed rare disease patients at scale using a massively parallel reporter assay. We demonstrate that this approach successfully identifies rare noncoding variants that alter the regulatory capacity of genomic sequences. In addition, we describe an integrative analysis that utilizes genomic features alongside patient clinical data to further prioritize candidate variants with an increased likelihood of pathogenicity. This work represents an important step towards establishing a framework for the functional interpretation of clinically detected noncoding variants.

Leaders’ Windows of Tolerance for Affect Arousal—and Their Effects on Political Decision-making During COVID-19

The recent ‘affect revolution’ in strategic decision-making research has placed greater emphasis on the role of stress and emotions in decision-making, with new theorizing to highlight how leader decisions often differ from rational choice expectations. However, while existing theories add to our understanding of the interplay between affect and cognition, they have not yet explained why affect drives decisions in some situations and not others. Undertheorized connections between leaders’ neurobiological windows of tolerance to affect arousal and their self-regulatory capacity—their capacity to regulate stress and emotions so that these phenomena do not drive resulting decisions—may hold the key to explaining this variation in affect’s influence on decision-making. Furthermore, this article considers how leaders’ windows of tolerance have unique ripple effects in their social environments, thereby affecting their groups’ collective window of tolerance. While regulated leaders can convey a calming and creative influence in their organizations that helps the group access strategic decision-making, dysregulated leaders are likely to convey stress and emotion contagion—which may erode the group’s ability to cooperate, adapt, and learn. It illustrates this argument using evidence from the upper echelons of governmental decision-making, comparing New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s and US President Donald Trump’s responses to the coronavirus pandemic in their respective nations. It concludes by offering hypotheses for testing the argument in future empirical research.

The substitution of agrobased society for industrial society: A perspective of transforming societies

Since the Industrial Revolution, a new era has arisen as the Anthropocene, in which human actions have become the main driver of global ecological crises outside the stable environmental state of the Holocene. During the Holocene, environmental change occurred naturally and Earth’s regulatory capacity maintained the conditions that enabled human development. By contrast, oil-dependent industrial society has exerted ecological crises. Agrobased society, in which almost all demands of human can be supported by agriculture, might be the ultimate solution industrial society facing ecological crises, in which there is a paradigm shift from the general and unlimited economic growth pursued by virtue of oil dependence to agrobased growth. The substitution of agrobased society for industrial society is an evolutionary result of Negation, it is a negation of materialized industrial society. The core feature of agriculture is to use organisms as production objects and rely on life processes to achieve production goals. The substitution of agrobased society for industrial society is the precondition for a sustainable carbon cycle, breaking through resource shortage, alleviating the environmental pressure of economic development. Meanwhile, it is feasible for the substitution of an agro-based society for an industrial society associated with the development of bio technologies and environmental awareness.

The Politics of Regulation in Ireland

There has been a global trend towards greater dependence on regulation since the 1980s. This chapter examines how this has played out in Ireland. Ireland offers an interesting case study of regulatory governance because of the long-standing practice of delegating key welfare functions to NGOs, which established the early Irish state as regulator as well as direct service provider. Subsequently, changes in state structures align to wider global trends towards regulatory governance. Nevertheless, there are also particular national characteristics, with significant weaknesses in regulatory capacity and with respect to accountability. Arguably, the global financial crisis, and the ensuing crises that hit Ireland from 2008, have shifted regulation towards a less exceptional model, with better established independent capacity over financial regulation, and, following a longer trend, growing independent provision for overseeing government. Within Ireland, there is a growing recognition that effective regulation of business and government is becoming a core doctrine.

International Financial Centers as a Model: Facilitating Growth and Development by Connecting to International Legal Frameworks

International financial centers (IFCs) provide means of strengthening law and regulation not only in the financial sector, but also in global governance more broadly and the contribution their legal regimes make to economic development. By demonstrating how ideas move across jurisdictions and how cross-jurisdictional structures add value, IFCs facilitate transactions in jurisdictions where local legal systems and services are not yet adequately developed or available to support economic activity. They serve as regulatory capacity builders, building networks of professionals, regulators, and judges contribute to ongoing innovation and capacity building. Their success at building legal regimes that add value and which are available to new classes of individuals and firms around the world makes them a model for using the legal system to foster economic development.