Ghost hand: My hand is not mine

Synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation of the type in the rubber hand illusion (RHI)^1-3^ and in out of body experience (OBE)^4,5^ can induce the brain to incorporate external objects or images into a part or whole of body image. Whether in the context of RHI or OBE, since the participant passively receives visuo-tactile stimulations, body image appears only with the sense of ownership (SoO), not with the sense of agency (the registration that we are the initiators of our actions; SoA)^6,7^. Insofar as self-consciousness as a body image is a unity acting in its environments, body image has to be investigated in the relationship between SoO and SoA^8,9^. It requires an experimental condition in which SoO and SoA can be independently separated in an active condition. However, no experimental condition that is opposite to RHI and OBE in which a subject can feel SoA but not SoO has been proposed to date^10^. Here, we show that a person loses SoO for his own hand that he can freely move by his own will when he sees himself in a lateral view through a head mounted display. It was previously thought that SoO can be represented by synchronous inter-modal stimulations^10^, and that SoO appears to be complemented by SoA11. Our findings show that SoO can be lost under a synchronous visuo-proprioceptive condition while SoA can be maintained. SoO and SoA are two aspects of body representation, and similar dissociations have been proposed in various contexts, such as body image and body schema^12,13^, and 'Acting I' and 'Mine'^14^. Our result suggests that the two-centric-self consisting of SoA and SoO can enhance dynamically robust self-consciousness

Involvement of ribosomal protein L6 in assembly of functional 50S ribosomal subunit in Escherichia coli cells

Ribosomal protein L6, an essential component of the large (50S) subunit, primarily binds to helix 97 of 23S rRNA and locates near the sarcin/ricin loop of helix 95 that directly interacts with GTPase translation factors. Although L6 is believed to play important roles in factor-dependent ribosomal function, crucial biochemical evidence for this hypothesis has not been obtained. We constructed and characterized an Escherichia coli mutant bearing a chromosomal L6 gene (rplF) disruption and carrying a plasmid with an arabinose-inducible L6 gene. Although this ﾎ猫6 mutant grew more slowly than its wild-type parent, it proliferated in the presence of arabinose. Interestingly, cell growth in the absence of arabinose was biphasic. Early growth lasted only a few generations (LI-phase) and was followed by a suspension of growth for several hours (S-phase). This suspension was followed by a second growth phase (LII-phase). Cells harvested at both LI- and S-phases contained ribosomes with reduced factor-dependent GTPase activity and accumulated 50S subunit precursors (45S particles). The 45S particles completely lacked L6. Complete 50S subunits containing L6 were observed in all growth phases regardless of the L6-depleted condition, implying that the ﾎ猫6 mutant escaped death because of a leaky expression of L6 from the complementing plasmid. We conclude that L6 is essential for the assembly of functional 50S subunits at the late stage. We thus established conditions for the isolation of L6-depleted 50S subunits, which are essential to study the role of L6 in translation.ArticleBiochemical and Biophysical Research Communications.473(1):237-242(2016)journal articl

Cyclodextrin-responsive nanogel as an artificial chaperone for horseradish peroxidase

The thermal stabilization and refolding of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) upon heating were investigated using an artificial molecular chaperone consisting of cholesterol-bearing pullulan (CHP) nanogels. The CHP nanogels inhibited the aggregation of HRP under heating by complexation with the denatured HRP. The enzyme activity of HRP complexed with CHP nanogels was not detected. However, the enzyme activity recovered up to 80% of native HRP after the addition of cyclodextrin (CD) to the complex. The dissociation of CHP nanogels was induced by the formation of an inclusion complex of cholesterol groups of CHP with CD. The enzyme activity of HRP was only significantly recovered by the addition of β-CD or its derivatives. Natural molecular chaperones, such as GroEL/ES, trap, fold, and release the nonnative proteins by changing the hydrophobicity of the specific sites of the molecular chaperone that interact with the nonnative protein. The functional mechanism of the nanogel chaperon system is similar to that of natural molecular chaperones. The nanogel chaperone system is a useful tool to aid the refolding and thermal stabilization of unstable proteins for post-genome research, and in medical and biological applications

Novel moduli space in modular flavor models : a case study for modular T′T' seesaw model with hidden SU(2)SU(2) gauge symmetry

We study flavor phenomenologies in a basis of a double covering of modular $A_4$ group with a hidden $SU(2)$ symmetry, in which we work on regions at nearby two fixed points and three special points. These special points of $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ moduli space are statistically favored in flux compactifications of Type IIB string theory. Neutrino masses are approximately obtained by using the seesaw mechanism due to our two additional symmetries. We perform chi square numerical analysis for each of the fixed/special points in the normal and inverted hierarchies and demonstrate predictions for each case. Then, we briefly discuss the possible signature of hidden gauge bosons at collider experiments from the hidden $SU(2)$ symmetry.Comment: 28 pages, 10 figures, 2 table