Mindfulness Meditation Activates Altruism.

Clinical evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation reduces anxiety, depression, and stress, and improves emotion regulation due to modulation of activity in neural substrates linked to the regulation of emotions and social preferences. However, less was known about whether mindfulness meditation might alter pro-social behavior. Here we examined whether mindfulness meditation activates human altruism, a component of social cooperation. Using a simple donation game, which is a real-world version of the Dictator's Game, we randomly assigned 326 subjects to a mindfulness meditation online session or control and measured their willingness to donate a portion of their payment for participation as a charitable donation. Subjects who underwent the meditation treatment donated at a 2.61 times higher rate than the control (p = 0.005), after controlling for socio-demographics. We also found a larger treatment effect of meditation among those who did not go to college (p < 0.001) and those who were under 25 years of age (p < 0.001), with both subject groups contributing virtually nothing in the control condition. Our results imply high context modularity of human altruism and the development of intervention approaches including mindfulness meditation to increase social cooperation, especially among subjects with low baseline willingness to contribute

Vortex Tubes in Turbulence Velocity Fields at Reynolds Numbers 300-1300

The most elementary structures of turbulence, i.e., vortex tubes, are studied using velocity data obtained in a laboratory experiment for boundary layers with microscale Reynolds numbers 295-1258. We conduct conditional averaging for enhancements of a small-scale velocity increment and obtain the typical velocity profile for vortex tubes. Their radii are of the order of the Kolmogorov length. Their circulation velocities are of the order of the root-mean-square velocity fluctuation. We also obtain the distribution of the interval between successive enhancements of the velocity increment as the measure of the spatial distribution of vortex tubes. They tend to cluster together below about the integral length and more significantly below about the Taylor microscale. These properties are independent of the Reynolds number and are hence expected to be universal.Comment: 8 pages, to appear in Physical Review

Brand competitiveness and resilience to exogenous shock: Usage of smartphone apps during the COVID-19 pandemic

This study examines the factors that affect brand competitiveness in an environment of uncertainty caused by exogenous shocks. In particular, this study focuses on smartphone apps and examines differences between “digital” brands that primarily do business online and “phygital” brands that have already established their brands offline. We also distinguished the highly uncertain environment into multiple phases and found non-linear changes in the magnitude of the parameters. We find that phygital brands have different factors affecting their competitiveness compared to digital brands. The results also provide insights into the online channel strategies of retail companies that already have brand value offline.Katsumata S., Nishimoto A., Kannan P.K.. Brand competitiveness and resilience to exogenous shock: Usage of smartphone apps during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 75, 103453 (2023); https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2023.103453

ZEB2 and MEIS1 independently contribute to hematopoiesis via early hematopoietic enhancer activation

血球細胞分化に必要な新たな因子を同定. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-09-29.Delineating the dynamic transcriptional and epigenetic landscape regulating hematopoiesis. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-10-17.Cell differentiation is achieved by acquiring a cell type-specific transcriptional program and epigenetic landscape. While the cell type-specific patterning of enhancers has been shown to precede cell fate decisions, it remains unclear how regulators of these enhancers are induced to initiate cell specification and how they appropriately restrict cells that differentiate. Here, using embryonic stem cell–derived hematopoietic cell differentiation cultures, we show the activation of some hematopoietic enhancers during arterialization of hemogenic endothelium, a prerequisite for hematopoiesis. We further reveal that ZEB2, a factor involved in the transcriptional regulation of arterial endothelial cells, and a hematopoietic regulator MEIS1 are independently required for activating these enhancers. Concomitantly, ZEB2 or MEIS1 deficiency impaired hematopoietic cell development. These results suggest that multiple regulators expressed from an earlier developmental stage non-redundantly contribute to the establishment of hematopoietic enhancer landscape, thereby restricting cell differentiation despite the unrestricted expression of these regulators to hematopoietic cells