Induction of Efficient Mutant for Production of Flavin-Adenine Dinucleotide from Sarcina lutea.

In attempt to obtain an efficient mutant for the production of flavin-adenine dinucleotide (FAD) from flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and adenine, Sarcina lutea. IAM 1099 was treated with N-methyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine, and a purine base-requiring and adenosine deaminaseless mutant was obtained as the favorable one. The mutant accumulated more than three fold as much as that by the parent strain.     

Plectranthias maekawa,a new species of perchlet from the Tokara Islands,Kagoshima, Japan,with a review of Japanese records of P. wheeleri (Serranidae: Anthiadinae)

Ichthyological Research - A new species of perchlet, Plectranthias maekawa, is described on the basis of three specimens (58.2–65.1 mm standard length: SL) from the Tokara Islands,...     

Aberrant Active cis-Regulatory Elements Associated with Downregulation of RET Finger Protein Overcome Chemoresistance in Glioblastoma

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Neural Networks for Mindfulness and Emotion Suppression

Mindfulness, an attentive non-judgmental focus on “here and now” experiences, has been incorporated into various cognitive behavioral therapy approaches and beneficial effects have been demonstrated. Recently, mindfulness has also been identified as a potentially effective emotion regulation strategy. On the other hand, emotion suppression, which refers to trying to avoid or escape from experiencing and being aware of one’s own emotions, has been identified as a potentially maladaptive strategy. Previous studies suggest that both strategies can decrease affective responses to emotional stimuli. They would, however, be expected to provide regulation through different top-down modulation systems. The present study was aimed at elucidating the different neural systems underlying emotion regulation via mindfulness and emotion suppression approaches. Twenty-one healthy participants used the two types of strategy in response to emotional visual stimuli while functional magnetic resonance imaging was conducted. Both strategies attenuated amygdala responses to emotional triggers, but the pathways to regulation differed across the two. A mindful approach appears to regulate amygdala functioning via functional connectivity from the medial prefrontal cortex, while suppression uses connectivity with other regions, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Thus, the two types of emotion regulation recruit different top-down modulation processes localized at prefrontal areas. These different pathways are discussed.     

Inter-individual relationships in empathic traits and feedback-related fronto-central brain activity: an event-related potential study

Background

Neuroimaging studies continue to indicate the major role the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays in processing empathic responses. Error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential (ERP) thought to arise from the ACC, has been found to correlate with scores for individual empathic personality. This study investigated the relationship between empathic personality traits and the amplitude of feedback-related negativity (FRN), an ERP sourced from the ACC and similar to the ERN, using a task involving feedback of monetary gains or losses.

Methods

Sixteen healthy participants answered an empathy trait questionnaire and performed a gambling task to elicit FRN. Because FRN amplitude is thought to be associated with attention, motivation, emotional state, and anxiety trait, we performed a partial correlation analysis between the empathic trait score and FRN amplitude while controlling for variables.

Results

In partial correlation analysis, FRN amplitude was significantly inversely correlated with scores for personal distress and marginally correlated with scores for empathic concern and with total average score.

Discussion

The study revealed for the first time an association between FRN and emotional empathic traits, after controlling for variables that can affect FRN amplitude. However, we also found a reversed directional correlation contrary to our expectations. This fronto-central brain activity may be associated with empathic properties via dopaminergic neuronal function. Future study using these electric potentials as experimental tools is expected to help elucidate the neurological mechanism of empathy.

     

Looking for immigration law

Culling the Masses by Professors David Scott FitzGerald and David Cook-Martín is an impressive work that makes important scholarly contributions. It analyses the trend in the USA, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil and Argentina away from explicit racial discrimination in immigration laws. One layer of the book's argument examines how ‘vertical’ (domestic) and ‘horizontal’ (external) forces led these countries to abandon explicit racism. In another layer, the book argues that this anti-racist turn was not a product of democracy. Instead, racist immigration laws were often the product of democratic influences and institutions. The nuanced examination of external influences on national immigration laws in Culling the Masses is an invaluable contribution. However, its inconsistent definition of ‘immigration law’ across countries leaves incomplete both its assessment of racism in the present-day immigration laws, and in turn, its assessment of the relationship between democracy and racism.     

Redescription of Lepadichthys coccinotaenia Regan 1921 and description of Lepadichthys trishula sp. nov. from southern Japan (Gobiesocidae: Diademichthyinae)

Ichthyological Research - Lepadichthys coccinotaenia Regan 1921 (Gobiesocidae: Diademichthyinae) is redescribed on the basis of 60 specimens, including the holotype, and a new species of...