Narcissistic vulnerability, cognitive evaluation of ego threat situation, coping strategies, and study of stress reaction <Article>

In clinical practice, an association between narcissistic vulnerability and stress has been identified. In some recent stress studies, it is reported that the relation between personal character and stress from life event will make mental health worse. In this study, the influence of and associations among cognitive evaluation, narcissistic vulnerability, the cognitive appraisal and coping, and stress reaction were examined. A survey was administered to an undergraduate university student and 3 79 graduate students. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis on the resulting data, with narcissistic vulnerability, cognitive evaluation, and coping stratagem as explanatory variables and stress reaction as a response variable were performed. Narcissistic vulnerability increased the stress response. Then, the narcissistic vulnerability subtype each varies the stress reaction. In "inhibition of self-exhibition" and "covert sense of entitlement", there are specific coping strategies which will raise or restrain stress reaction. From the above, it is important to consider coping strategies by sab types

Understanding the link between state and trait aspects of self-esteem in a social context <Article>

As people experience various events in everyday life, their assessment of emotion and of self-changes. In recent years, research has increasingly focused on individual fluctuation of short-term emotions as a means of explaining changes in self-esteem. In this study, an association between trait self-esteem (TSE), i.e., self-esteem as a characteristic, and state self-esteem (SSE), the type of self-esteem that is alterable by daily events were examined. Every day for one week, 61 students (23 male) from three universities were surveyed. Data were analyzed by hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling, and revealed a positive association between SSE and TSE that suggests TSE is a general evaluation and SSE varies according to specific experiences. Individual differences were also observed such that the SSE and TSE relationship was affected by interpersonal dislocation: those who had experienced interpersonal dislocation, compared with those who had not, demonstrated a temporary intensification of both types of self-esteem

The Dam1 ring binds to the E-hook of tubulin and diffuses along the microtubule.

There has been much effort in recent years aimed at understanding the molecular mechanism by which the Dam1 kinetochore complex is able to couple microtubule depolymerization to poleward movement. Both a biased diffusion and a forced walk model have been proposed, and several key functional aspects of Dam1-microtubule binding are disputed. Here, we investigate the elements involved in tubulin-Dam1 complex interactions and directly visualize Dam1 rings on microtubules in order to infer their dynamic behavior on the microtubule lattice and its likely relevance at the kinetochore. We find that the Dam1 complex has a preference for native tubulin over tubulin that is lacking its acidic C-terminal tail. Statistical mechanical analysis of images of Dam1 rings on microtubules, applied to both the distance between rings and the tilt angle of the rings with respect to the microtubule axis, supports a diffusive ring model. We also present a cryo-EM reconstruction of the Dam1 ring, likely the relevant assembly form of the complex for energy coupling during microtubule depolymerization in budding yeast. The present studies constitute a significant step forward by linking structural and biochemical observations toward a comprehensive understanding of the Dam1 complex

Stochastic dynamics simulations in a new generalized ensemble

We develop a formulation for molecular dynamics, Langevin, and hybrid Monte Carlo algorithms in the recently proposed generalized ensemble that is based on a physically motivated realisation of Tsallis weights. The effectiveness of the methods are tested with an energy function for a protein system. Simulations in this generalized ensemble by the three methods are performed for a penta peptide, Met-enkephalin. For each algorithm, it is shown that from only one simulation run one can not only find the global-minimum-energy conformation but also obtain probability distributions in canonical ensemble at any temperature, which allows the calculation of any thermodynamic quantity as a function of temperature.Comment: to appear in Chem. Phy. Let

Replica-exchange multicanonical algorithm and multicanonical replica-exchange method for simulating systems with rough energy landscape

We propose two efficient algorithms for configurational sampling of systems with rough energy landscape. The first one is a new method for the determination of the multicanonical weight factor. In this method a short replica-exchange simulation is performed and the multicanonical weight factor is obtained by the multiple-histogram reweighting techniques. The second one is a further extension of the first in which a replica-exchange multicanonical simulation is performed with a small number of replicas. These new algorithms are particularly useful for studying the protein folding problem.Comment: 9 pages, (ReVTeX), 7 figures. Chem. Phys. Lett. (2000), in pres

Replica-Exchange Simulated Tempering Method for Simulations of Frustrated Systems

We propose a new method for the determination of the weight factor for the simulated tempering method. In this method a short replica-exchange simulation is performed and the simulated tempering weight factor is obtained by the multiple-histogram reweighting techniques. The new algorithm is particularly useful for studying frustrated systems with rough energy landscape where the determination of the simulated tempering weight factor by the usual iterative process becomes very difficult. The effectiveness of the method is illustrated by taking an example for protein folding.Comment: 8 pages, (ReVTeX), 5 figures, Chem. Phys. Lett., submitte

The relationship between psychological comfort space and self-esteem in people with mental disorders

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate a causal model of the sense of having psychological comfortable space that is call ‘ibasho’ in Japanese and self-esteem in people with mental disorders who had difficulty in social activities. The subjects were 248 schizophrenia patients who were living in the community and receiving day care treatment. Data were collected from December 2007 to April 2009 using the Scale for the Sense of ibasho for persons with mentally ill (SSI) and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and analyzed for cross-validation of construct validity by conducting covariance structure analysis. A relationship between the sense of having comfortable space and self-esteem was investigated. Multiple indicator models of the sense of having psychological comfortable space and self-esteem were evaluated using structural equation modeling. Furthermore, the SSI scores were compared between the high- and low-self-esteem groups. The path coefficient from the sense of having comfortable space to self-esteem was significant (0.80). High-self-esteem group scored significantly higher in the SSI subscales, ‘the sense of recognizing my true self’ and ‘the sense of recognizing deep personto- person relationships’ than the low-self-esteem group. It was suggested that in order to help people with mental disorders improve self-esteem, it might be useful to support them in a way they can enhance the sense of having comfortable space

IL-4–Stat6 Signaling Induces Tristetraprolin Expression and Inhibits TNF-α Production in Mast Cells

Increasing evidence has revealed that mast cell–derived tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) plays a critical role in a number of inflammatory responses by recruiting inflammatory leukocytes. In this paper, we investigated the regulatory role of interleukin 4 (IL-4) in TNF-α production in mast cells. IL-4 inhibited immunoglobulin E–induced TNF-α production and neutrophil recruitment in the peritoneal cavity in wild-type mice but not in signal transducers and activators of transcription 6 (Stat6)–deficient mice. IL-4 also inhibited TNF-α production in cultured mast cells by a Stat6-dependent mechanism. IL-4–Stat6 signaling induced TNF-α mRNA destabilization in an AU-rich element (ARE)–dependent manner, but did not affect TNF-α promoter activity. Furthermore, IL-4 induced the expression of tristetraprolin (TTP), an RNA-binding protein that promotes decay of ARE-containing mRNA, in mast cells by a Stat6-dependent mechanism, and the depletion of TTP expression by RNA interference prevented IL-4–induced down-regulation of TNF-α production in mast cells. These results suggest that IL-4–Stat6 signaling induces TTP expression and, thus, destabilizes TNF-α mRNA in an ARE-dependent manner