Isolation and characterization of the full-length cDNA encoding a member of a novel cytochrome p450 family (CYP320A1) from the tropical freshwater snail, Biomphalaria glabrata, intermediate host for Schistosoma mansoni

Cytochrome p450s (cyp450s) are a family of structurally related proteins, with diverse functions, including steroid synthesis and breakdown of toxins. This paper reports the full-length sequence of a novel cyp450 gene, the first to be isolated from the tropical freshwater snail Biomphalaria glabrata, an important intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni. The nucleotide sequence is 2291 bp with a predicted amino acid sequence of 584aa. The sequence demonstrates conserved cyp450 structural motifs, but is sufficiently different from previously reported cyp450 sequences to be given a new classification, CYP320A1. Initially identified as down-regulated in partially resistant snails in response to S. mansoni infection, amplification of this gene using RT-PCR in both totally resistant or susceptible snail lines when exposed to infection, and all tissues examined, suggests ubiquitous expression. Characterization of the first cyp450 from B. glabrata is significant in understanding the evolution of these metabolically important proteins

Unconscious emotions in media content

Stories and human society are inseparable. Before human history, our ancestors created myths as the oldest form of narratives. Due to the advances of digital media, stories are nowadays communicated in various ways. Yet the structure and the key elements of modern stories still remain the same. This chapter starts with a discussion about the relationship between stories and human society. It is curious that human beings keep being intrigued by stories of similar structures and scenes. A reasonable speculation is that these identical components of stories might induce emotional experiences at an unconscious level. Can emotions be unconscious? While the answer to this question is still open to debate, more and more empirical evidence suggests that humans might have unconscious emotions in certain conditions. In order to provide a holistic theoretical overview focusing on unconscious emotions, a review of contemporary theories, models, and measures of emotion is provided. This review illustrates an integrated overview of research into unconscious emotions and also points out potential challenges and promising approaches that could inform future research on unconscious emotions in media content

Measuring archetypal experiences with physiological sensors

The instincts and innate behaviors that form the collective unconscious can be recognized by a computer using physiological sensors

Lifelogging for hidden minds : interacting unconsciously

In this paper, we propose a conceptual design of an entertainment system, which would utilize a combination of lifelogging and bio-signal measuring techniques for capturing unconscious communication flow coming from a user. We expect this system could interpret the user’s unconsciousness and generate an emotionally rich feedback framed in a narrative, which would be tailored according to the universal symbolic patterns. This concept aims to explore a new area of entertainment computing. The discussed system looks promising to proceed with future work

What do we feel about archetypes : self-reports and physiological signals

In research on emotion, presenting affective stimuli has been believed to be an effective and reliable technique for emotion elicitation. Instead of collecting stimuli for predefined emotions, we propose to develop stimuli based on their symbolic meanings. We adopted archetypal symbolism as a standard to edit eight movie clips of archetypes as a new set of affective stimuli. These stimuli were used in an experiment for emotion elicitation. Participants’ emotional responses toward these stimuli of archetypes were measured by the self-report technique and the physiological measurement. The results of linear discriminant analysis show that physiological measurement is more robust than the self-report techniques in recognizing emotions toward stimuli of archetypes. However, it is still unclear which technique reflects the ground truth of human emotion. We discuss alternative implications of these results, and provide more research questions for future studies on emotion recognition and model development

From mythology to psychology : identifying archetypal symbols in movies

In this article, we introduce the theory of archetype, which explains the connection between ancient myths and the human mind. Based on the assumption that archetypes are in the deepest level of human mind, we propose that archetypal symbolism is a kind of knowledge that supports the cognitive process for creating subjective world-view towards the physical world we live in. According to archetypal symbolism, we conducted an empirical study to identify archetypal symbols in modern movies. A new collection of movie clips was developed to represent eight essential archetypes: anima, animus, mentor, mother, shadow, hero’s departure, hero’s initiation and hero’s return, which can be used in future studies on human emotion. In order to investigate the emotions towards these archetypal symbols, we provide suggestions from the psychological point of view. The present study demonstrates how to identify symbolic meanings in movies, and indicates a new direction for future studies in psychology

Beyond cognition and affect : sensing the unconscious

In the past decade, research on human–computer interaction has embraced psychophysiological user interfaces that enhance awareness of computers about conscious cognitive and affective states of users and increase their adaptive capabilities. Still, human experience is not limited to the levels of cognition and affect but extends further into the realm of universal instincts and innate behaviours that form the collective unconscious. Patterns of instinctual traits shape archetypes that represent images of the unconscious. This study investigated whether seven various archetypal experiences of users lead to recognisable patterns of physiological responses. More specifically, the potential of predicting the archetypal experiences by a computer from physiological data collected with wearable sensors was evaluated. The subjects were stimulated to feel the archetypal experiences and conscious emotions by means of film clips. The physiological data included measurements of cardiovascular and electrodermal activities. Statistical analysis indicated a significant relationship between the archetypes portrayed in the videos and the physiological responses. Data mining methods enabled us to create between-subject prediction models that were capable of classifying four archetypes with an accuracy of up to 57.1%. Further analysis suggested that classification performance could be improved up to 70.3% in the case of seven archetypes by using within-subject models