Do people who highly value happiness tend to ruminate?

Previous studies have suggested that an extremely strong desire for happiness might ironically reduce a person’s well-being, particularly among Western people. According to the goal progress theory and the theory of valuing happiness, rumination might explain the relationship between valuing happiness and well-being. Based on these theoretical rationales, this study examined the following hypotheses: (1) valuing happiness is significantly associated with rumination, (2) people who experience low life stress have a stronger association between valuing happiness and rumination, and (3) people with more interdependent self-construal have a weaker association between valuing happiness and rumination. University students in Japan participated in a cross-sectional study (N = 350; Study 1) and a 4-weeks longitudinal study (N = 329; Study 2). They responded to a packet of questionnaires assessing valuing happiness, trait rumination, depressive symptoms, negative events, and interdependent self-construal. Consistent with our hypothesis, valuing happiness was concurrently and longitudinally associated with increased rumination after controlling for depressive symptoms. However, negative events did not moderate the association between valuing happiness and rumination. Furthermore, Study 1, but not Study 2, indicated that the association between valuing happiness and rumination was stronger among students with highly interdependent self-construal than those with less interdependent self-construal. The preset findings indicated that valuing happiness might be a factor that perpetuates rumination. More sophisticated evidence on the influence of valuing happiness on rumination can lead to effective psychotherapies for decreasing rumination and depression

縄文時代の海岸線復元と遺跡動態 : 岡山平野のボーリング調査を踏まえて

瀬戸内沿岸における縄文時代の人間活動を理解するためには、古地形復元と遺跡動態との関連を分析することが重要な視点となる。その第一歩として、同地域で有数の縄文遺跡密集地である岡山平野において、ボーリングコアを採取する調査を実施し、その地質調査から、特に海岸線に現れる環境変化の復元を試みた。その結果、縄文海進のピーク以降も、相対的な海水準変動が海岸線の変化をもたらし、人間活動に影響を与えた可能性が、遺跡動態の検討からも予想されることとなった

Magneto-Plastic Effect in Nickel Single Crystals

It has been observed that the flow stress of a nickel single crystal can be lowered about 15% by applying an alternating magnetic field parallel to the specimen axis during plastic deformation at -194℃. This phenomenon, named by us as the magneto-plastic effect, can be interpreted qualitatively in terms of a concept that oscillating magnetic domain walls give a force on dislocations. In order to clarify this effect, its dependence on the temperature, plastic strain, strain rate, and on the strength and frequency of the alternating magnetic field applied have been measured. The activation volumes in relation to a thermally activated process of dislocation motion were also obtained from the stress relaxation curves measured after and before the application of an alternating magnetic field, and they were compared mutually at various values of the shear stress

Structural insights into the similar modes of Nrf2 transcription factor recognition by the cytoplasmic repressor Keap1

The structure of mouse Keap1-DC complexed with the DLG motif peptide of Nrf2 transcription factor was determined at 1.9 Å resolution. The structure showed that the peptide binds to Keap1-DC at the bottom region of the β-propeller domain

Mechanisms of the inhibition of reverse transcription by unmodified and modified antisense oligonucleotides

AbstractWe demonstrated that unmodified and modified (phosphorothioate) oligonucleotides prevent cDNA synthesis by AMV or HIV reverse transcriptases. Antisense oligonucleotide/RNA hybrids specifically arrest primer extension. The blockage involves the degradation of the RNA fragment bound to the antisense oligonucleotide by the reverse transcriptase-associated RNase H activity. However, the phosphorothioate oligomer inhibited polymerization by binding to the AMV RT rather than to the template RNA, whereas there was no competitive binding of the phosphorothioate oligomer on the HIV RT during reverse transcription

The change of stress distribution on the condyle after mandibular setback surgery

金沢大学医学部附属病院歯科口腔外科The rigid-body spring model (RBSM) theory was incorporated into a model as a discrete method for analysing problems of limit, such as the stress distribution on the condyle. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the two-dimensional RBSM for determining stress on the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) in patients after orthognathic surgery. Thirty-two patients (five males and 27 females, mean age 21.4 ± 4.9 years) with mandibular prognathism underwent bilateral sagittal split ramus osteotomy (SSRO) and setback; 48 subjects were recruited as controls. Anatomical landmarks were traced from pre- and post-operative lateral cephalograms and the information was processed using the Fortran analysis program. The force vector on the condyle, its degree, its direction, and the displacement co-ordinates (x, y) and rotation (θ) at the gonial angle were calculated. When muscular power was assumed to be 1, the post-operative degree of the force vector was higher than the pre-operative value (P < 0.05). The X co-ordinate, x, and rotation, q, of the displacement vector in the pre-operative patients with mandibular prognathism were significantly higher than those in the control subjects (P < 0.05). There were still significant differences between the displacement values post-operatively between the patients and controls (P < 0.05). The results suggest that the degree and direction of the force vector and the resulting displacement co-ordinates can be used as parameters in a surgical model. The RBSM may also be useful in evaluating the pre- and post-operative skeletal morphology of jaw deformities. © The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Orthodontic Society. All rights reserved

Time-Dimensional Traffic Engineering with Storage Aware Routing

Because of the popularity of rich content, such as video files, the amount of traffic on the Internet continues to grow every year. Not only is the overall traffic increasing, but also the temporal fluctuations in traffic are increasing, and differences in the amounts of traffic between peak and off-peak periods are becoming very large. Consequently, efficient use of link bandwidth is becoming more challenging. In this paper, we propose a new system for content distribution: storage aware routing (SAR). With SAR, routers having large storage capacities can exploit those links that are underutilized. Our performance evaluations show that SAR can smooth the fluctuations in link utilization

Distributions and ages of the Paleogene deposits in the Kibi Plateau Area, and Paleogene paleogeography

The "Kibi Plateau" forms a unique geomorphic province with the gently-sloping and stable continental feature. Gravel deposites called the "Mountain Gravels", are distributed sporadically in the Kibi Plateau, and have been considered Pliocene deposits. However, recent fission-track ages of the tuff beds intercalated in the deposits have indicated that the ago of deposits are Paleogen in the age. So far, fission-track ages (using zircon) of 61 to 65, 55, 37, 34 to 35 and 27 Ma are obtained. Remaining the belt-like distributions of the Paleogene gravelly valley-full deposits suggest that the Kibe Plateau has been keeping as a stable block, and repeated periods of incision followed by sedimentation of valley-fill deposits are occurred in the area during Paleogene period

Comparison of the stress direction on the TMJ in patients with class I, II, and III skeletal relationships.

金沢大学大学院医薬保健研究域医学系OBJECTIVE: To assess the relationship between skeletal morphology and stress direction on the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) by a two-dimensional rigid body spring model (RBSM). DESIGN: Lateral cephalograms were analyzed and the information was processed with a fortran analysis program. SETTING AND SAMPLE POPULATION: The subjects were 149 patients (54 men and 95 women, mean age 21.8 +/- 5.9 years) from Kanazawa University Hospital and the School of Dentistry, Virginia Commonwealth University. Of the 149 cases, 48 were skeletal class I, 54 were class II, and 47 were class III. The patients had no TMJ symptoms or abnormalities. OUTCOME MEASURE: The force vector on the condyle, its direction (Ph angle), the degree of the vector (Ph) and the displacement vector (u, v), and the rotational angle (theta) of the mandibular body were calculated by RBSM. RESULTS: The direction of the force vector (Ph angle) on the condyle was 24.83 degrees +/- 4.67 degrees in the class II group, 21.04 degrees +/- 5.59 degrees in the class I group, and 19.58 +/- 7.57 degrees in the class III group. The Ph angle of the class II group was significantly larger than those of the class I and III groups (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that differences in skeletal patterns induce differences in stress distribution on the TMJ; the morphology of the TMJ was also associated with stress direction and distribution on the condyle