Conformation of NAD+ bound to yeast and horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase in solution. The use of the proton-proton transferred nuclear Overhauser enhancement

Changes in reduced viscosity of nuclear lysates from rat liver cells have been studied, in conditions of very low shear stress by the use of an oscillating viscometer, as a function of incubation time in alkaline (pH 12.5) and neutral (pH 8.0) solutions. In non-denaturing conditions, nuclear DNA showed a stepwise, time-dependent increase of reduced viscosity, which suggests that it behaves as a single hydrodynamic unit that progressively changes its radius and viscoelastic properties because of a very slow unfolding, through discrete successive transitions, from a highly superpacked structure toward a linear relaxed B-form fiber. Experimental conditions shown to reduce chromatin-DNA superpacking without changing DNA length (e.g. G₁ cycling versus G₀ non-cycling liver cells, or young versus old rat liver cells) dramatically increased the initial value of reduced viscosity and its time-dependent increment. Conversely, in denaturing conditions, reduced viscosity increased in the initial phase (probably because DNA unfolding prevails on DNA unwinding), then exhibited a plateau level (when unfolding balances unwinding), and subsequently decreased progressively to the value of sheared DNA (when unwinding becomes more rapid due to the progressive breakage of phosphodiester bridges in alkali). Experimental conditions known to induce DNA single- or double-strand breaks (i.e. the use of liver cells from rats treated with dimethylnitrosamine or 2-acetylaminofluorene, or of liver cells exposed to X-rays) caused in both neutral and alkaline solution an increment in the initial reduced viscosity and in the slope of its time-dependent increase, which may be related to a reduction of chromatin-DNA superpacking. Moreover, it became evident in denaturing conditions that a decrease of the maximum viscosity and of the time taken to reach it both related to a reduced DNA length. These viscoelastic properties are constantly correlated with independent DNA structural measurements on the same nuclear lysates, to discriminate the effect due to mere aggregation and disaggregation.     

Detecting meaning in dream reports: An extension of a word search approach.

Building on previous investigations of waking–dreaming continuities using word search technology (Bulkeley 2009a, 2009b; Domhoff & Schneider, 2008), we demonstrate that a blind analysis of a dream series using only word search methods can accurately predict many important aspects of the individual's waking life, including personality attributes, relationships, activities, and cultural preferences. Results from a study of the “Van” dream series (N = 192) show that blind inferences drawn from a word search analysis were almost entirely accurate according to the dreamer. After presenting these findings we discuss several remaining shortcomings and suggest ways of improving the method for use by other researchers involved in the search for a more systematic understanding of meaning in dreams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antidepressants and advertising: psychopharmaceuticals in crisis

As the efficacy and science of psychopharmaceuticals has become increasingly uncertain, marketing of these drugs to both physicians and consumers continues to a central part of a multi-billion dollar per year industry in the United States. We explore how such drug marketing portrays idealized scientific relationships between psychopharmaceuticals and depression; how multiple stakeholders, including scientists, regulatory agencies, and patient advocacy groups, negotiate neurobiological explanations of mental illness; and how the placebo effect has become a critical issue in these debates, including the possible role of drug advertising to influence the placebo effect directly. We argue that if and how antidepressants work is not a straightforward objective question, but rather a larger social contest involving scientific debate, the political history of the pharmaceutical industry, cultural discourses surrounding the role of drugs in society, and the interpretive flexibility of personal experience.     

Barriers to application of genetically modified lactic acid bacteria

To increase the acceptability of food products containing genetically modified microorganisms it is necessary to provide in an early stage to the consumers that the product is safe and that the product provide a clear benefit to the consumer. To comply with the first requirement a systematic approach to analyze the probability that genetically modified lactic acid bacteria will transform other inhabitants of the gastro-intestinal (G/I) tract or that these lactic acid bacteria will pick up genetic information of these inhabitants has been proposed and worked out to some degree. From this analysis it is clear that reliable data are still missing to carry out complete risk assessment. However, on the basis of present knowledge, lactic acid bacteria containing conjugative plasmids should be avoided. Various studies show that consumers in developed countries will accept these products when they offer to them health or taste benefits or a better keepability. For the developing countries the biggest challenge for scientists is most likely to make indigenous fermented food products with strongly improved microbiological stability due to broad spectra bacteriocins produced by lactic acid bacteria. Moreover, these lactic acid bacteria may contribute to health.     

Unraveling the Chimera: A Corporate View of the Precautionary Principle

Current controversy regarding how and when the precautionary principle should be applied to the introduction of new technology has created a false dichotomy, a dichotomy between conventional, risk-based decision making and an alternative paradigm that seemingly denounces risk assessment. As we compare views of the precautionary principle relative to our own operating standards for ensuring human and environmental safety, we perceive no irreconcilable conflict. Due precaution is entirely consistent with sound, cost-effective management of the risks and uncertainties inherent in new technologies. The principle guides prudent risk management actions under a prescribed set of circumstances, i.e., potentially serious or irreversible risks, or incomplete characterization (high uncertainty). In order to enable technological innovation toward a more sustainable future, it is critical that any preventative measures taken under these circumstances be provisional in nature, pending adequate risk characterization. As with all risk management decisions, we contend that the principle requires consideration of a suite of factors beyond risk assessment, including political, social, legal and cultural considerations to tailor the measures proportionately to the risk at hand. Overall, we are encouraged to find relatively broad agreement in this interpretation with a number of key multinational governmental and trade institutions.     

Bounded rationality in volunteering public goods games

It is one of the fundamental problems in biology and social sciences how to maintain high levels of cooperation among selfish individuals. Theorists present an effective mechanism promoting cooperation by allowing for voluntary participation in public goods games. But Nash's theory predicts that no one can do better or worse than loners (players unwilling to join the public goods game) in the long run, and that the frequency of participants is independent of loners’ payoff. In this paper, we introduce a degree of rationality and investigate the model by means of an approximate best response dynamics. Our research shows that the payoffs of the loners have a significant effect in anonymous voluntary public goods games by this introduction and that the dynamics will drive the system to a fixed point, which is different from the Nash equilibrium. In addition, we also qualitatively explain the existing experimental results.     

Standby Consumption in Households Analyzed With a Practice Theory Approach

This article focuses on the energy consumption of households and the question of how daily routines can be changed in a more sustainable direction. It discusses different theoretical approaches with which to understand consumer behavior and introduces practice theory that emphasizes sociotechnical structures as the basis for analyzing stability of consumer practices and opportunities for change. Through analysis of ten in-depth interviews with families participating in a project aimed at reducing standby consumption, it is shown how technological configurations, everyday life routines, knowledge, and motivation constitute the practice and also structure the possibilities for change. The article concludes by contending that a conception of human behavior that is both less rational and less individualistic is needed to understand stability and change of households' energy consumption behavior.     

Rationality Wars and the War on Terror: Explaining Terrorism and Social Unrest

Terrorism is problematic at multiple levels. Social scientists debate its cause; policymakers debate what to do about it; many debate the meaning and political use of the term; and many live in fear of it. Current explanations of terrorism hinge on competing models of decision making. Anthropologists are increasingly influential in decision theory as issues of rationality, culture, and evolutionary psychology are invoked to explain patterns in human decision making. In this article, I review and critique current explanations of terrorism, I relate these explanations to larger debates in decision theory and anthropology, and I present an example of how current schisms may be transcended.     

Live Better by Consuming Less?: Is There a "Double Dividend" in Sustainable Consumption?

Industrial ecology has mainly been concerned with improving the efficiency of production systems. But addressing consumption is also vital in reducing the impact of society on its environment. The concept of sustainable consumption is a response to this. But the debates about sustainable consumption can only really be understood in the context of much wider and deeper debates about consumption and about consumer behavior itself. This article explores some of these wider debates. In particular, it draws attention to a fundamental disagreement that runs through the literature on consumption and haunts the debate on sustainable consumption: the question of whether, or to what extent, consumption can be taken as "good for us." Some approaches assume that increasing consumption is more or less synonymous with improved well-being: the more we consume the better off we are. Others argue, just as vehemently, that the scale of consumption in modern society is both environmentally and psychologically damaging, and that we could reduce consumption significantly without threatening the quality of our lives. This second viewpoint suggests that a kind of "double dividend" is inherent in sustainable consumption: the ability to live better by consuming less and reduce our impact on the environment in the process. In the final analysis, this article argues, such "win-win" solutions may exist but will require a concerted societal effort to realize.